Boldness and intermittent locomotion in the bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus

Intermittent locomotion, characterized by moves interspersed with pauses, is a common pattern of locomotion in animals, but its ecological and evolutionary significance relative to continuous locomotion remains poorly understood. Although many studies have examined individual differences in both intermittent locomotion and boldness separately, to our knowledge, no study to date has investigated the relationship between these 2 traits. Characterizing and understanding this relationship is important, as both locomotion and boldness are associated with several ecologically relevant behaviors such as foraging, mating, predator evasion, exploration, and dispersal. Here, we report on individual differences in boldness (risk-taking behavior) and intermittent locomotion in a novel laboratory environment in field-caught juvenile bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Our results show that juvenile bluegill sunfish exhibited individual-level variation in 2 modes of intermittent locomotion (undulatory and labriform swimming) and that this variation was correlated with differences in their boldness behavior. Generally, bolder individuals spent more time moving fast for longer durations and with shorter pauses than more timid individuals. Neither boldness nor locomotion was correlated with body size or body condition. This study provides the first empirical evidence for a link between an animal "personality" trait and intermittent locomotion

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

The value of quantitative environmental DNA analyses for the management of invasive and endangered native fish

1. Environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring is a useful tool for species detection but its use in addressing management questions remains scarce. One factor limiting the use of eDNA as a routine monitoring tool is uncertainty around the potential of eDNA data to estimate species abundance. While several confounding factors limit the ability of eDNA data to estimate absolute abundances at large spatial and temporal scales, eDNA data have the potential to estimate relative species abun- dances patterns at smaller scales, and this information can assist management. 2. Environmental DNA and conventional monitoring surveys were conducted in the Abercrombie River catchment (Australia) where an incursion of the invasive red- fin perch (Perca fluviatulis) threatens the survival of a population of endangered Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica). Species-specific assays were used to quantify eDNA concentrations from water samples and estimate the relative abundance of both species. Electrofishing and fyke netting surveys were used to validate key observations from the eDNA survey. 3. Environmental DNA of both species was detected at all sites except one, where redfin perch DNA was not detected. Between species comparisons of eDNA con- centrations revealed a clear negative relationship between the eDNA concen- trations of both species, consistent with other evidence of redfin perch having a negative impact on Macquarie perch populations. Between site comparisons of redfin perch eDNA concentrations showed evidence of a novel incursion of the species in the upper reaches of the Abercrombie River and conventional monitor- ing in the following year confirmed the pattern of increased redfin perch abun- dances from downstream to upstream sites. 4. Relative comparisons of eDNA concentrations of aquatic species can be used to assess species interactions and reveal unexpected species abundance patterns (e.g. allowing inferences of novel incursions of invasive species). This informa- tion is critical to evaluate current, and design future, management strategies. Consequently, while deriving absolute species abundances from quantitative eDNA data may remain challenging, the use of quantitative eDNA surveys can provide relative abundance patterns valuable to the conservation and manage- ment of invasive and endangered species. 5. The quantitative nature of eDNA survey data has been debated extensively in the current literature because of potential confounding influences. Current study results show that these confounding influences may be less problematic at small spatial scales and quantitative eDNA data can be effective to monitor relative spe- cies abundances patterns

Identification multiplex assay of 19 terrestrial mammal species present in New Zealand

An identification assay has been developed that allows accurate detection of 19 of the most common terrestrial mammals present in New Zealand (cow, red deer, goat, dog, horse, hedgehog, cat, tammar wallaby, mouse, weasel, ferret, stoat, sheep, rabbit, Pacific rat, Norway rat, ship rat, pig, and brushtail possum). This technique utilizes species‐specific primers that, combined in a multiplex PCR, target small fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Each species, except hedgehog, produces two distinctive species‐specific fragments, making the assay self‐confirmatory and enabling the identification of multiple species simultaneously in DNA mixtures. The multiplex assay detects as little as 100 copies of mitochondrial DNA, which makes it a very reliable tool for degraded and trace samples. Reliability, accuracy, reproducibility, and sensitivity tests to validate the technique were performed. The technique featured here enabled a prompt response in a predation specific event, but can also be useful for wildlife management and conservation, pest incursions detection, forensic, and industrial purposes in a very simple and cost‐effective manner

Data from: An invasive non-native mammal population conserves genetic diversity lost from its native range

Invasive, non-native species are one of the major causes of global biodiversity loss. Although they are, by definition, successful in their non-native range, their populations generally show major reductions in their genetic diversity during the demographic bottleneck they experience during colonization. By investigating the mitochondrial genetic diversity of an invasive non-native species, the stoat Mustela erminea, in New Zealand and comparing it to diversity in the species’ native range in Great Britain, we reveal the opposite effect. We demonstrate that the New Zealand stoat population contains four mitochondrial haplotypes that have not been found in the native range. Stoats in Britain rely heavily on introduced rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus as their primary prey and were introduced to New Zealand in a misguided attempt at biological control of rabbits, which had also been introduced there. While invasive stoats have since decimated the New Zealand avifauna, native stoat populations were themselves decimated by the introduction to Britain of Myxoma virus as a control measure for rabbits. We highlight the irony that while introduced species (rabbits) and subsequent biocontrol (myxomatosis) have caused population crashes of native stoats, invasive stoats in New Zealand, which were also introduced for biological control, now contain more genetic haplotypes than their most likely native source

The genesis of Irish-type Zn-Pb deposits: characterisation and origin of the principal ore fluid

No abstract available

The genesis of Irish-type Zn-Pb deposits: characterisation and origin of the principal ore fluid

No abstract available