Seychelles warblers: complexities of the helping paradox

IntroductionThe Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), a passerine endemic to the Seychelles archipelago, is a facultatively cooperative breeder that lives either in pairs or small groups. Breeding groups normally consist of a dominant pair and one to three subordinates, although up to nine have been observed. Subordinates can be of either sex, and are often offspring that have delayed dispersal and remained in their natal territory (Komdeur 1992; Richardson et al. 2002; Eikenaar et al. 2008, 2010). By the 1960s the last remnant population of this then critically endangered species was confined to Cousin Island (Figure 12.1). Subsequent conservation actions, including the restoration of forest habitat and the establishment of new populations through translocations, have provided unique opportunities to study the evolutionary ecology of cooperative breeding in this species. We have followed the entire world population of the Seychelles warbler since our study started in 1981. In 1997, however, we increased the intensity of work on Cousin and since then nearly all individuals, including fledglings, have been captured, ringed, blood sampled, sexed, and monitored for breeding and status. Molecular tools have been used to assign the sex and genetic parentage of young birds and to determine levels of relatedness between individuals. In addition, a comprehensive set of behavioral, life history, and annual fitness parameters have been recorded for nearly all individuals, providing important opportunities for assessing changes in social behavior. The lack of interisland dispersal (Komdeur et al. 2004a), combined with sampling of the entire population, provides a rare opportunity to monitor the survival, reproduction, and lifetime fitness of all individuals within the population. Our long-term research program into cooperative breeding, hand-in-hand with conservation actions, has created an experimental system in which we can attempt to unravel the factors that alter the cost-benefit trade-offs of cooperative breeding. Over time, this system has become proof of the power of the experimental methods and of the corrective value of long-term studies, where iterative examination with longer-term data sheds new insights on short-term findings. Here we detail various findings that have allowed us to uncover how changing social and ecological factors influence the form and function of reproductive competition and cooperation in the Seychelles warbler. We also outline how molecular genetic tools have given us a better understanding of the species’ cooperative breeding system and the selective factors that favor switching between different forms of cooperative and independent breeding

Maximum Likelihood Estimation to Assign Paternity within Multiply Sired Broods: Use of the EM Algorithm

This issue was undated. The date given is an estimate.31 pages, 1 article*Maximum Likelihood Estimation to Assign Paternity within Multiply Sired Broods: Use of the EM Algorithm* (McCulloch, Charles E.; Dickinson, Janis L.) 31 page

Modular and cultural factors in biological understanding: an experimental approach to the cognitive basis of science

What follows is a discussion of three sets of experimental results that deal with various aspects of universal biological understanding among American and Maya children and adults. The first set of experiments shows that by the age of four-to-five years (the earliest age tested in this regard) urban American and Yukatek Maya children employ a concept of innate species potential, or underlying essence, as an inferential framework for understanding the affiliation of an organism to a biological species, and for projecting known and unknown biological properties to organisms in the face of uncertainty. The second set of experiments shows that the youngest Maya children do not have an anthropocentric understanding of the biological world. Children do not initially need to reason about non-human living kinds by analogy to human kinds. The third set of results show that the same taxonomic rank is cognitively preferred for biological induction in two diverse populations: people raised in the Mid-western USA and Itza' Maya of the Lowland Meso-american rainforest. This is the generic species the level of oak and robin. These findings cannot be explained by domain-general models of similarity because such models cannot account for why both cultures prefer species-like groups in making inferences about the biological world, although Americans have relatively little actual knowledge or experience at this level. The implication from these experiments is that folk biology may well represent an evolutionary design: universal taxonomic structures, centred on essence-based generic species, are arguably routine products of our ‘habits of mind,' which may be in part naturally selected to grasp relevant and recurrent ‘habits of the world.' The science of biology is built upon these domain-specific cognitive universals: folk biology sets initial cognitive constraints on the development of any possible macro-biological theory, including the initial development of evolutionary theory. Nevertheless, the conditions of relevance under which science operates diverge from those pertinent to folk biology. For natural science, the motivating idea is to understand nature as it is ‘in itself,' independently of the human observer (as far as possible). From this standpoint, the species-concept, like taxonomy and teleology, may arguably be allowed to survive in science as a regulative principle that enables the mind to readily establish stable contact with the surrounding environment, rather than as an epistemic concept that guides the search for truth

Citizen science: a new approach to advance ecology, education, and conservation

Citizen science has a long history in the ecological sciences and has made substantial contributions to science, education, and society. Developments in information technology during the last few decades have created new opportunities for citizen science to engage ever larger audiences of volunteers to help address some of ecology’s most pressing issues, such as global environmental change. Using online tools, volunteers can find projects that match their interests and learn the skills and protocols required to develop questions, collect data, submit data, and help process and analyze data online. Citizen science has become increasingly important for its ability to engage large numbers of volunteers to generate observations at scales or resolutions unattainable by individual researchers. As a coupled natural and human approach, citizen science can also help researchers access local knowledge and implement conservation projects that might be impossible otherwise. In Japan, however, the value of citizen science to science and society is still underappreciated. Here we present case studies of citizen science in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and describe how citizen science is used to tackle key questions in ecology and conservation, including spatial and macro-ecology, management of threatened and invasive species, and monitoring of biodiversity. We also discuss the importance of data quality, volunteer recruitment, program evaluation, and the integration of science and human systems in citizen science projects. Finally, we outline some of the primary challenges facing citizen science and its future.Dr. Janis L. Dickinson was the keynote speaker at the international symposium at the 61th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan. We appreciate the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan for providing grant to Hiromi Kobori (25282044). Tatsuya Amano is financially supported by the European Commission’s Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship Programme (PIIF-GA-2011- 303221). The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agencies or the Department of the Interior or the US Government.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11284-015-1314-

The Presidency and the Executive Branch in Latin America: What We Know and What We Need to Know

The presidential politics literature depicts presidents either as all- powerful actors or figureheads and seeks to explain outcomes accordingly. Th e president and the executive branch are nonetheless usually treated as black boxes, particularly i n developing countries, even though the presidency has evolved into an extremely complex branch of government. While these developments have been studied in the U nited States, far less i s known in other countries, particularly in Latin America, where presi dential systems have been considered the source of all goods and evils. To help close the knowledge gap and explore differences in policymaking characteristics not only between Latin America and the US but also across Latin American countries, this paper s ummarizes the vast literature on the organization and resources of the Executive Branch in the Americas and sets a research agenda for the study of Latin American presidencies.Fil: Bonvecchi, Alejandro. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Departamento de Ciencia Política y Estudios Internacionales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Scartascini, Juan Carlos. Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo; Estados Unido

Using molt limits to age Western Bluebirds

Using data on the extent of prebasic molt in known-aged adult and first-winter Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana), we assessed the accuracy of the molt limit as a tool for ageing birds. Sixty-nine known-aged birds were examined over the winter 2002–2003 in upper Carmel Valley, California. We also examined 29 breeding males in spring 2004 to assess the accuracy of this method for ageing birds during the breeding season. All birds were aged correctly using molt limit as the defining characteristic. We found that all first-winter birds had replaced 2–8 greater secondary coverts, while adults had replaced all wing coverts. We observed no significant sexual variation in the extent of first prebasic molt. These results indicate that the extent of prebasic molt is a highly reliable means of ageing birds in this population. Utilización de limites en la muda para determinar la edad de Sialia mexicana -- Utilizando datos sobre la longitud del periodo de muda prebásica en adultos de edad concoida y la del primer invierno en Sialia mexicana, determinamos con exactitud los límites en el periodo de muda como herramienta para determinar la edad de las aves. Durante el invierno de 2002–2003, examinamos 69 individuos en la parte superior del Valle Carmel, California. Además examinamos 29 machos en etapa reproductiva durante la primavera del 2004 para determinar la exactitud del método para determinar la edad las aves durante la época de reproducción. La edad de todas las aves fue determinada correctamente utilizando los límites de muda como método. Encontramos que todas las aves de primer invierno han remplazado de 2–8 las cobijas de las secundarias, mientras que los adultos han remplazado todas las cobijas del ala. No se encontró diferencia significativa de variedad en los sexos en la primera muda prebásica. Estos resultados indican que la extensión del plumaje prebásico es una forma altamente confiable para determinar la edad en la problación estudiada