Defining conservation units with enhanced molecular tools to reveal fine scale structuring among Mediterranean green turtle rookeries

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData accessibility: the data associated with this article is avaiable in the Dryad Digital Repository: https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.7db01Understanding the connectivity among populations is a key research priority for species of conservation concern. Genetic tools are widely used for this purpose, but the results can be limited by the resolution of the genetic markers in relation to the species and geographic scale. Here, we investigated natal philopatry in green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from four rookeries within close geographic proximity (~200 km) on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. We genotyped hypervariable mtSTRs, a mtDNA control region sequence (CR) and 13 microsatellite loci to genetically characterise 479 green turtles using markers with different modes of inheritance. We demonstrated matrilineal stock structure for the first time among Mediterranean green turtle rookeries. This result contradicts previous regional assessments and supports a growing body of evidence that green turtles exhibit a more precise level of natal site fidelity than has commonly been recognised. The microsatellites detected weak male philopatry with significant stock structure among three of the six pairwise comparisons. The absence of Atlantic CR haplotypes and mtSTRs amongst these robust sample sizes reaffirms the reproductive isolation of Mediterranean green turtles and supports their status as a subpopulation. A power analysis effectively demonstrated that the mtDNA genetic markers previously employed to evaluate regional stock identity were confounded by an insufficient resolution considering the recent colonisation of this region. These findings improve the regional understanding of stock connectivity and illustrate the importance of using suitable genetic markers to define appropriate units for management and conservation.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spai

Satellite tracking and stable isotope analysis highlight differential recruitment among foraging areas in green turtles

This is the final version. Available on open access from Inter Research via the DOI in this recordIdentifying links between breeding and non-breeding sites in migratory animals is an important step in understanding their ecology. Recognising the relative importance of foraging areas and ascertaining site-specific levels of recruitment can provide fundamental and applied insights. Here, satellite telemetry and the stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N and δ34S) of 230 green turtles Chelonia mydas from a regionally important rookery in northern Cyprus were employed to evaluate the relative importance of 4 foraging areas. A preliminary analysis of stable isotope ratios suggested that a major foraging area had been missed through satellite telemetry as a large proportion of turtles had isotope ratios that did not correspond to sites previously identified. Stable isotope ratios were then employed to select 5 turtles to be fitted with platform terminal transmitters in 2015. All 5 turtles were subsequently tracked to the same location, Lake Bardawil in Egypt. Serially collected tissue samples from 45 females, ranging over 2 to 4 breeding seasons, suggested that foraging site fidelity was very common, with 82% of females exhibiting extremely high temporal consistency in isotope ratios. Quantifying fidelity allowed an evaluation of foraging area-specific contributions to each breeding cohort over the past 2 decades and demonstrated that recruitment was unequal among sites, and dynamic over time, with Egypt now currently the major contributor to the nesting aggregation. This work demonstrates the utility of stable isotope analysis to elucidate the spatial ecology of cryptic taxa and illustrates how more robust baselines can be assembled against which to measure the success of future marine conservation initiatives.P.J.B. is funded by a National Environment Research Council grant 1353865. C.C. is supported by the project CTM2013-48163 from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. We thank the following for their support: Marine Turtle Conservation Project (MTCP), Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles (MEDASSSET), North Cyprus Department of Environmental Protection, seaturtle. org, Society for the Protection of Sea Turtles in North Cyprus (SPOT); and for funding: Apache, British Chelonia Group, BP Egypt, the British High Commission and British Residents Society of North Cyprus, Darwin Initiative, Erwin Warth Foundation, Friends of SPOT, INNPA, Kuzey Kıbrıs Turkcell, NERC, Marine Conservation Society Sea Turtle Conservation Fund, and MEDASSET, UK

Static and dynamic solar coronal loops with cross-sectional area variations

The Enthalpy Based Thermal Evolution of Loops approximate model for static and dynamic coronal loops is developed to include the effect of a loop cross-sectional area which increases from the base of the transition region (TR) to the corona. The TR is defined as the part of a loop between the top of the chromosphere and the location where thermal conduction changes from an energy loss to an energy gain. There are significant differences from constant area loops due to the manner in which the reduced volume of the TR responds to conductive and enthalpy fluxes from the corona. For static loops with modest area variation the standard picture of loop energy balance is retained, with the corona and TR being primarily a balance between heating and conductive losses in the corona, and downward conduction and radiation to space in the TR. As the area at the loop apex increases, the TR becomes thicker and the density in TR and corona larger. For large apex areas, the coronal energy balance changes to one primarily between heating and radiation, with conduction playing an increasingly unimportant role, and the TR thickness becoming a significant fraction of the loop length. Approximate scaling laws are derived that give agreement with full numerical solutions for the density, but not the temperature. For non-uniform areas, dynamic loops have a higher peak temperature and are denser in the radiative cooling phase by of order 50 per cent than the constant area case for the examples considered. They also show a final rapid cooling and draining once the temperature approaches 1 MK. Although the magnitude of the emission measure will be enhanced in the radiative phase, there is little change in the important observational diagnostic of its temperature dependence

Genetic variation for tuber mineral concentrations in accessions of the Commonwealth Potato Collection

The variation in tuber mineral concentrations amongst accessions of wild tuber-bearing Solanum species in the Commonwealth Potato Collection (CPC) was evaluated under greenhouse conditions. Selected CPC accessions, representing the eco-geographical distribution of wild potatoes, were grown to maturity in peat-based compost under controlled conditions. Tubers from five plants of each accession were harvested, bulked and their mineral composition analysed. Among the germplasm investigated, there was a greater range in tuber concentrations of some elements of nutritional significance to both plants and animals, such as (Ca, Fe and Zn; 6.7, 3.6, and 4.5-fold respectively) than others, such as (K, P and S; all <3-fold). Significant positive correlations were found between mean altitude of the species' range and tuber P, K, Cu and Mg concentrations. The amount of diversity observed in the CPC collection indicates the existence of wide differences in tuber mineral accumulation among different potato accessions. This might be useful in breeding for nutritional improvement of potato tubers

Activation of Ventral Tegmental Area 5-HT2C Receptors Reduces Incentive Motivation

FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE The research was funded by Wellcome Trust (WT098012) to LKH; and National Institute of Health (DK056731) and the Marilyn H. Vincent Foundation to MGM. The University of Michigan Transgenic Core facility is partially supported by the NIH-funded University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research (DK034933). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Dr Celine Cansell, Ms Raffaella Chianese and the staff of the Medical Research Facility for technical assistance. We thank Dr Vladimir Orduña for the scientific advice and technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Does self-monitoring of blood glucose improve outcome in type 2 diabetes? The Fremantle Diabetes Study

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: To assess whether self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is an independent predictor of improved outcome in a community-based cohort of type 2 diabetic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used longitudinal data from (1) 1,280 type 2 diabetic participants in the observational Fremantle Diabetes Study (FDS) who reported SMBG and diabetes treatment status at study entry (1993–1996), and (2) a subset of 531 participants who attended six or more annual assessments (referred to as the 5-year cohort). Diabetes-related morbidity, cardiac death and all-cause mortality were ascertained at each assessment, supplemented by linkage to the Western Australian Data Linkage System. RESULTS: At baseline, 70.2% (898 out of 1,280) of type 2 patients used SMBG. During 12,491 patient-years of follow-up (mean 9.8 ± 3.5 years), 486 (38.0%) type 2 participants died (196 [15.3%] from cardiac causes). SMBG was significantly less prevalent in those who died during follow-up than in those who were still alive at the end of June 2006 (65.4 vs 73.0%, p = 0.005). In Cox proportional hazards modelling, after adjustment for confounding and explanatory variables, SMBG was not independently associated with all-cause mortality, but was associated with a 79% increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in patients not treated with insulin. For the 5-year cohort, time-dependent SMBG was independently associated with a 48% reduced risk of retinopathy. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: SMBG was not independently associated with improved survival. Inconsistent findings relating to the association of SMBG with cardiac death and retinopathy may be due to confounding, incomplete covariate adjustment or chance

Soil methane sink capacity response to a long-term wildfire chronosequence in Northern Sweden

Boreal forests occupy nearly one fifth of the terrestrial land surface and are recognised as globally important regulators of carbon (C) cycling and greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon sequestration processes in these forests include assimilation of CO2 into biomass and subsequently into soil organic matter, and soil microbial oxidation of methane (CH4). In this study we explored how ecosystem retrogression, which drives vegetation change, regulates the important process of soil CH4 oxidation in boreal forests. We measured soil CH4 oxidation processes on a group of 30 forested islands in northern Sweden differing greatly in fire history, and collectively representing a retrogressive chronosequence, spanning 5000 years. Across these islands the build-up of soil organic matter was observed to increase with time since fire disturbance, with a significant correlation between greater humus depth and increased net soil CH4 oxidation rates. We suggest that this increase in net CH4 oxidation rates, in the absence of disturbance, results as deeper humus stores accumulate and provide niches for methanotrophs to thrive. By using this gradient we have discovered important regulatory controls on the stability of soil CH4 oxidation processes that could not have not been explored through shorter-term experiments. Our findings indicate that in the absence of human interventions such as fire suppression, and with increased wildfire frequency, the globally important boreal CH4 sink could be diminished