Recent Shifts in the Occurrence, Cause, and Magnitude of Animal Mass Mortality Events

Mass mortality events (MMEs) are rapidly occurring catastrophic demographic events that punctuate background mortality levels. Individual MMEs are staggering in their observed magnitude: re- moving more than 90% of a population, resulting in the death of more than a billion individuals, or producing 700 million tons of dead biomass in a single event. Despite extensive documentation of individual MMEs, we have no understanding of the major features characterizing the occurrence and magnitude of MMEs, their causes, or trends through time. Thus, no framework exists for contextualizing MMEs in the wake of ongoing global and regional perturbations to natural systems. Here we present an analysis of 727 published MMEs from across the globe, affecting 2,407 animal populations. We show that the magnitude of MMEs has been intensifying for birds, fishes, and marine invertebrates; invariant for mammals; and decreasing for reptiles and amphibians. These shifts in magnitude proved robust when we accounted for an increase in the occurrence of MMEs since 1940. However, it remains unclear whether the increase in the occurrence of MMEs represents a true pattern or simply a perceived increase. Regardless, the increase in MMEs appears to be associated with a rise in disease emergence, biotoxicity, and events produced by multiple interacting stressors, yet temporal trends in MME causes varied among taxa and may be associated with increased de- tectability. In addition, MMEs with the largest magnitudes were those that resulted from multiple stressors, starvation, and disease. These results advance our understanding of rare demographic processes and their relationship to global and regional perturba- tions to natural systems

BioCPR–A Tool for Correlation Plots

A gene is a sequence of DNA bases through which genetic information is passed on to the next generation. Most genes encode for proteins that ultimately control cellular function. Understanding the interrelation between genes without the application of statistical methods can be a daunting task. Correlation analysis is a powerful approach to determine the strength of association between two variables (e.g., gene-wise expression). Moreover, it becomes essential to visualize this data to establish patterns and derive insight. The most common method for gene expression visualization is to use correlation heatmaps in which the colors of the plot represent strength of co-expression. In order to address this requirement, we developed a visualization tool called BioCPR: Biological Correlation Plots in R. This tool performs both correlation analysis and subsequent visualization in the form of an interactive heatmap, improving both usability and interpretation of the data. BioCPR is an R Shiny-based application and can be run locally in Rstudio or a web browser.</p

The under-ice microbiome of seasonally frozen lakes

Compared to the well-studied open water of the “growing” season, under-ice conditions in lakes are characterized by low and rather constant temperature, slow water movements, limited light availability, and reduced exchange with the surrounding landscape. These conditions interact with ice-cover duration to shape microbial processes in temperate lakes and ultimately influence the phenology of community and ecosystem processes. We review the current knowledge on microorganisms in seasonally frozen lakes. Specifically, we highlight how under-ice conditions alter lake physics and the ways that this can affect the distribution and metabolism of auto- and heterotrophic microorganisms. We identify functional traits that we hypothesize are important for understanding under-ice dynamics and discuss how these traits influence species interactions. As ice coverage duration has already been seen to reduce as air temperatures have warmed, the dynamics of the under-ice microbiome are important for understanding and predicting the dynamics and functioning of seasonally frozen lakes in the near future

Opportunities for behavioral rescue under rapid environmental change

Laboratory measurements of physiological and demographic tolerances are important in understanding the impact of climate change on species diversity; however, it has been recognized that forecasts based solely on these laboratory estimates overestimate risk by omitting the capacity for species to utilize microclimatic variation via behavioral adjustments in activity patterns or habitat choice. The complex, and often context‐dependent nature, of microclimate utilization has been an impediment to the advancement of general predictive models. Here, we overcome this impediment and estimate the potential impact of warming on the fitness of ectotherms using a benefit/cost trade‐off derived from the simple and broadly documented thermal performance curve and a generalized cost function. Our framework reveals that, for certain environments, the cost of behavioral thermoregulation can be reduced as warming occurs, enabling behavioral buffering (e.g., the capacity for behavior to ameliorate detrimental impacts) and “behavioral rescue” from extinction in extreme cases. By applying our framework to operative temperature and physiological data collected at an extremely fine spatial scale in an African lizard, we show that new behavioral opportunities may emerge. Finally, we explore large‐scale geographic differences in the impact of behavior on climate‐impact projections using a global dataset of 38 insect species. These multiple lines of inference indicate that understanding the existing relationship between thermal characteristics (e.g., spatial configuration, spatial heterogeneity, and modal temperature) is essential for improving estimates of extinction risk

Knowledge integration using product R&D outsourcing in biotechnology

We build on systems integration literature to explain how and why knowledge integration of non-modular products is based on a strategic choice between internalizing and outsourcing core R&D. The under-researched choice of outsourcing core R&D on an on-going basis appears to face risks of higher transactions costs and loss of control. We illuminate these choices in a comparative analysis of two longitudinal cases that compare an internally focused R&D intensive firm and an externally focused R&D intensive firm; and we show how the externally focused approach can avoid risks by framing non-modular outsourcing as modular even though it is not so and by engaging in a social process of communication to achieve a common agreement between partners concerning the direction of efforts and thus effectively reduce highly iterative knowledge exchange between modules. Our findings add to our understanding of the systems integration literature; the nature of firm product system strategies, as well as firm boundaries in a knowledge economy

Network embeddedness and new product development in the biopharmaceutical industry: The moderating role of open innovation flow

This paper explores the role of centrality and structural holes positions on the likelihood to develop new products and the moderating role of the open innovation flow, a measure of the net knowledge flow crossing the firm's boundaries, on the aforementioned relation. We argue that network positions provide the information content to the firm, whilst open innovation flow describes how the firm uses such content, thus the combination of these two concepts has a significant impact on new product development. We test the theoretical framework on a large sample of 544 public companies and data from 1758 agreements among 1890 bio-pharmaceutical firms through the period 2006-2010. Our results show that being centrally located in the network positively affects the new product development process, while having a structural holes position has no effect on the aforementioned performance. However, the interaction of the two network positions with the open innovation flow has a positive impact on the likelihood to develop new products

Environmental variability in aquatic ecosystems: Avenues for future multifactorial experiments

The relevance of considering environmental variability for understanding and predicting biological responses to environmental changes has resulted in a recent surge in variability-focused ecological research. However, integration of findings that emerge across studies and identification of remaining knowledge gaps in aquatic ecosystems remain critical. Here, we address these aspects by: (1) summarizing relevant terms of variability research including the components (characteristics) of variability and key interactions when considering multiple environmental factors; (2) identifying conceptual frameworks for understanding the consequences of environmental variability in single and multifactorial scenarios; (3) highlighting challenges for bridging theoretical and experimental studies involving transitioning from simple to more complex scenarios; (4) proposing improved approaches to overcome current mismatches between theoretical predictions and experimental observations; and (5) providing a guide for designing integrated experiments across multiple scales, degrees of control, and complexity in light of their specific strengths and limitations

Molecular Surveillance Identifies Multiple Transmissions of Typhoid in West Africa.

BACKGROUND: The burden of typhoid in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has been difficult to estimate, in part, due to suboptimal laboratory diagnostics. However, surveillance blood cultures at two sites in Nigeria have identified typhoid associated with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) as an important cause of bacteremia in children. METHODS: A total of 128 S. Typhi isolates from these studies in Nigeria were whole-genome sequenced, and the resulting data was used to place these Nigerian isolates into a worldwide context based on their phylogeny and carriage of molecular determinants of antibiotic resistance. RESULTS: Several distinct S. Typhi genotypes were identified in Nigeria that were related to other clusters of S. Typhi isolates from north, west and central regions of Africa. The rapidly expanding S. Typhi clade 4.3.1 (H58) previously associated with multiple antimicrobial resistances in Asia and in east, central and southern Africa, was not detected in this study. However, antimicrobial resistance was common amongst the Nigerian isolates and was associated with several plasmids, including the IncHI1 plasmid commonly associated with S. Typhi. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that typhoid in Nigeria was established through multiple independent introductions into the country, with evidence of regional spread. MDR typhoid appears to be evolving independently of the haplotype H58 found in other typhoid endemic countries. This study highlights an urgent need for routine surveillance to monitor the epidemiology of typhoid and evolution of antimicrobial resistance within the bacterial population as a means to facilitate public health interventions to reduce the substantial morbidity and mortality of typhoid

PP1 initiates the dephosphorylation of MASTL, triggering mitotic exit and bistability in human cells

Entry into mitosis is driven by the phosphorylation of thousands of substrates, under the master control of Cdk1. During entry into mitosis, Cdk1, in collaboration with MASTL kinase, represses the activity of the major mitotic protein phosphatases, PP1 and PP2A, thereby ensuring mitotic substrates remain phosphorylated. For cells to complete and exit mitosis, these phosphorylation events must be removed, and hence, phosphatase activity must be reactivated. This reactivation of phosphatase activity presumably requires the inhibition of MASTL; however, it is not currently understood what deactivates MASTL and how this is achieved. In this study, we identified that PP1 is associated with, and capable of partially dephosphorylating and deactivating, MASTL during mitotic exit. Using mathematical modelling, we were able to confirm that deactivation of MASTL is essential for mitotic exit. Furthermore, small decreases in Cdk1 activity during metaphase are sufficient to initiate the reactivation of PP1, which in turn partially deactivates MASTL to release inhibition of PP2A and, hence, create a feedback loop. This feedback loop drives complete deactivation of MASTL, ensuring a strong switch-like activation of phosphatase activity during mitotic exit.CINSW FRL FellowshipThe Patricia Helen Guest FellowshipThe Petre Foundatio