Invasive Crayfish Faxonius Rusticus Do Not Prefer Pheromones of Conspecifics

The invasive crayfish Faxonius rusticus has invaded multiple watersheds throughout Pennsylvania and the country. Current trapping methods are time consuming, labor intensive, and ineffective. Because crustaceans produce and utilize pheromones to communicate social status and mating condition, baited pheromone traps might serve as an effective alternative to the current trapping methods. The aim of this study was to examine if F. rusticus can distinguish between pheromones produced by conspecifics during breeding and non-breeding seasons. Previous research in our lab showed that during the breeding season females prefer male pheromones, but that preference disappears during the non-breeding season. We collected pheromones from male and female F. rusticus during breeding and non-breeding seasons. Collected pheromones were combined to create stocks; female breeding, female non-breeding, male breeding, and male non-breeding. Sexually mature F. rusticus were exposed to breeding and non-breeding pheromone stocks of opposite sex by pumping the pheromones through the arms of a Y-maze. The preference of the individual was determined based on which arm of the maze it selected and spent more time in. Findings suggest that during the non-breeding season mature crayfish do not exhibit a preference for pheromone type, breeding or non-breeding. There was no difference in pheromone preference between males and females; neither sex exhibited preference for opposite sex pheromones from the either breeding or non-breeding season. Understanding how pheromones are used by crayfish is essential to developing effective methods for eradication of invasive species

Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming on Natural and Human Systems

An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate povert

A solution to the challenges of interdisciplinary aggregation and use of specimen-level trait data.

Understanding variation of traits within and among species through time and across space is central to many questions in biology. Many resources assemble species-level trait data, but the data and metadata underlying those trait measurements are often not reported. Here, we introduce FuTRES (Functional Trait Resource for Environmental Studies; pronounced few-tress), an online datastore and community resource for individual-level trait reporting that utilizes a semantic framework. FuTRES already stores millions of trait measurements for paleobiological, zooarchaeological, and modern specimens, with a current focus on mammals. We compare dynamically derived extant mammal species' body size measurements in FuTRES with summary values from other compilations, highlighting potential issues with simply reporting a single mean estimate. We then show that individual-level data improve estimates of body mass-including uncertainty-for zooarchaeological specimens. FuTRES facilitates trait data integration and discoverability, accelerating new research agendas, especially scaling from intra- to interspecific trait variability