Sexual minority women and parenthood: Perceptions of friendship among childfree and new parents

Many individuals experience shifts in their friendship networks after becoming parents. The current study investigated the narratives of how a sample of sixty-six sexual minority women, most of whom do not yet have children but who expect to be parents in the future, perceive the changes in friendship networks following becoming parents. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes: (1) general expectations surrounding future parenthood and friendships; (2) changes in lifestyle and priorities; and (3) LGBTQ + community attachment. Further, the theme of general expectations surrounding future parenthood and friendships was largely represented among lesbian and queer women, while the theme of changes in lifestyle and priorities was predominately represented among lesbian women, and finally, the theme of LGBTQ + community attachment was shared among all sexual minority women in our sample across different sexual identities. We discuss the diversity of shared and non-shared narratives among sexual minority women, the intentionality in how friendship during parenthood is perceived, as well as why some themes were particularly prevalent among women with specific sexual identities

Colour vision of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchlings: do they still prefer blue under water?

Background. Several anatomical studies have concluded that green turtles (Chelonia mydas) possess the necessary anatomy for colour vision. Behavioural experiments were conducted with newly emerged hatchlings, testing their attraction towards light sources of different colours on their journey into the ocean. It was concluded that they are attracted to shorter wavelengths compared to longer ones, suggesting a possible attraction towards blue. Methods. Forty-one green turtles at six months of age were tested for their colour discrimination capabilities during a three-choice experiment under water. Three colours were selected for experimentation: blue, yellow, and red. Four different saturations (25, 50, 75, and 100%) of each of these colours were created, in total 12 colours were tested. The colour stimuli was printed and laminated paper colour blocks with food attached to force an interaction. Turtles were individually placed into their housing tanks with three different colours in front of them, from the same level saturation. The colour of the colour plate first approached and bitten by the turtle was noted. Results. The colour of the plate significantly influenced the likelihood that one food plate was selected more than another. Overall blue was selected 66.1%, yellow 18.2% and red 15.7%. There was also a significant interaction between the colour plate selected and the colour of the housing tank. Discussion.The findings of this study are consistent with previous research, concluding that green turtles are attracted to shorter wavelength colours, blue, compared to longer wavelength colours such as yellow or red. As the colour saturation changed and the colours became darker, turtles still chose food from the blue plates compared to the other options. These results indicate an attraction towards the colour blue, and as these research animals have never been in the wild, it is suggested that this attraction be an innate behavioural characteristic for green turtles

Envisioning future parenthood among bisexual, lesbian, and heterosexual women

For many individuals, becoming a parent is an important milestone. The current study examined attitudes and beliefs about parenting among a sample of 196 self-identified bisexual, lesbian, and heterosexual women. Results showed no differences by sexual orientation for women’s desires and intentions to have children, their idealization of parenthood, and perceptions of their parental self-efficacy (i.e., their ability to care for a child). In contrast, differences did emerge by sexual orientation in aspects such as partner expectations as well as professional intentions (i.e., wanting a permanent position before becoming a parent). Bisexual women tended to anticipate lower partner support compared to heterosexual women. Lesbian women, however, had a greater preference to work full-time during parenthood and wanted a permanent position before becoming a parent compared to both bisexual and heterosexual women. Implications are discussed of how bisexual women’s perceptions of parenthood are both similar to and distinct from lesbian and heterosexual women

Know thine enemy: why some weaver ants do but others do not

Recognition systems involve 3 components: an expression component, a perception component, and an action or response component. Disentangling the perception component from the action component can be difficult, as the absence of a discriminatory response may result from either a difference in perception or action. Social insects generally defend their colony against intruding conspecifics and provide a useful model for exploring recognition systems. However, whether differences in behavior at the colony or individual level result from the perception or action component of the recognition system is largely unknown. Furthermore, variation at the individual level has remained largely unexplored because research on social insects often focuses on the colony rather than on the individual. Using some novel behavioral bioassays, we here show that variation in the aggressive behavior of individual weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina L.) arises more from the identity of the recipient than of the intruder and, contrary to previous findings, that this often results from perceptual differences. We suggest that recognition in weaver ants may involve a template based on the individual’s odor prior to intermingling with other odors rather than on a common odor. We also argue that a common odor might be more important for the survival of the colony than a shared template. Conversely, possessing a range of templates may provide a colony with additional fitness benefits. By focusing on the differences among individual workers within colonies, this study reveals complexities in nest mate recognition that might otherwise have gone unnoticed

Disturbance, dispersal and marine assemblage structure: A case study from the nearshore Southern Ocean

Disturbance is a key factor in most natural environments and, globally, disturbance regimes are changing, driven by increased anthropogenic influences, including climate change. There is, however, still a lack of understanding about how disturbance interacts with species dispersal capacity to shape marine assemblage structure. We examined the impact of ice scour disturbance history (2009–2016) on the nearshore seafloor in a highly disturbed region of the Western Antarctic Peninsula by contrasting the response of two groups with different dispersal capacities: one consisting of high-dispersal species (mobile with pelagic larvae) and one of low-dispersal species (sessile with benthic larvae). Piecewise Structural Equation Models were constructed to test multi-factorial predictions of the underlying mechanisms, based on hypothesised responses to disturbance for the two groups. At least two or three disturbance factors, acting at different spatial scales, drove assemblage composition. A comparison between both high- and low-dispersal models demonstrated that these mechanisms are dispersal dependent. Disturbance should not be treated as a single metric, but should incorporate remote and direct disturbance events with consideration of taxa-dispersal and disturbance legacy. These modelling approaches can provide insights into how disturbance shapes assemblages in other disturbance regimes, such as fire-prone forests and trawl fisheries

On the asymptotic magnitude of subsets of Euclidean space

Magnitude is a canonical invariant of finite metric spaces which has its origins in category theory; it is analogous to cardinality of finite sets. Here, by approximating certain compact subsets of Euclidean space with finite subsets, the magnitudes of line segments, circles and Cantor sets are defined and calculated. It is observed that asymptotically these satisfy the inclusion-exclusion principle, relating them to intrinsic volumes of polyconvex sets.Comment: 23 pages. Version 2: updated to reflect more recent work, in particular, the approximation method is now known to calculate (rather than merely define) the magnitude; also minor alterations such as references adde

Evolution of nesting habitats and metapleural glands in ants

The metapleural gland is a unique and complex structure located on the propodeum of ants. Given its function in immune defence against microbes, it has undoubtedly played an important role in the ecological success of ants by enforcing colony hygiene and preventing diseases. Although this gland has an important antimicrobial function, it has been lost several times. It has been proposed that these losses are due to a shift in nesting habit, i.e. ants living in trees can afford to loose the metapleural gland because this environment harbours fewer microbes. Here we test this idea, the 'Arboreality Hypothesis', by constructing a phylogeny for 48 formicine ant species using eight markers (nuclear and mitochondrial) and Bayesian tree building methods. Character mapping for the presence/absence of the gland and nesting habitat was carried out with SIMMAP including 1000 trees from the posterior distribution of the MCMC run. Our results show several independent losses and regains of the metapleural gland across the subfamily. We also find a significant correlation between the two traits, suggesting that the 'Arboreality Hypothesis' can indeed explain the pattern of presence/absence of the metapleural gland in this group of ants

Warming by 1°C drives species and assemblage level responses in Antarctica’s marine shallows

Forecasting assemblage-level responses to climate change remains one of the greatest challenges in global ecology [1 , 2 ]. Data from the marine realm are limited because they largely come from experiments using limited numbers of species [3 ], mesocosms whose interior conditions are unnatural [4 ], and long-term correlation studies based on historical collections [5 ]. We describe the first ever experiment to warm benthic assemblages to ecologically relevant levels in situ. Heated settlement panels were used to create three test conditions: ambient and 1°C and 2°C above ambient (predicted in the next 50 and 100 years, respectively [6]). We observed massive impacts on a marine assemblage, with near doubling of growth rates of Antarctic seabed life. Growth increases far exceed those expected from biological temperature relationships established more than 100 years ago by Arrhenius. These increases in growth resulted in a single “r-strategist” pioneer species (the bryozoan Fenestrulina rugula) dominating seabed spatial cover and drove a reduction in overall diversity and evenness. In contrast, a 2°C rise produced divergent responses across species growth, resulting in higher variability in the assemblage. These data extend our ability to expand, integrate, and apply our knowledge of the impact of temperature on biological processes to predict organism, species, and ecosystem level ecological responses to regional warming