Changes in Elephant Abundance Affect Forest Composition or Regeneration?

While overall numbers of African elephant have declined dramatically in recent times, some populations are now confined to protected areas and are locally overabundant—an undesirable situation for both biodiversity conservation and elephants. In forested protected areas, options to manage elephants are limited because it is difficult to safely approach animals, yet it is vital that these populations are managed because browsing by elephants can dramatically alter forest ecosystems. Using data collected over 50 yr in Kibale National Park, Uganda, we examine the prediction that increasing elephant numbers and associated changes in their foraging behavior have caused a shift in tree community composition. Although the relative abundance of elephants increased significantly between 1996 and 2010, the population structure of their preferred tree food species did not change, nor did tree community composition change in favor of species able to re‐sprout after elephant damage. Furthermore, over the last 50 yr Kibale elephants have not become more selective foragers, as would be expected if more nutritious tree species were declining. However, elephants are more abundant in disturbed areas dominated by shrubs and grasses and appear to have arrested forest succession in these areas. At their current abundance, elephants have not selectively altered the composition of intact old growth forest, but they do inhibit the regeneration of disturbed areas.     

Electrophysiological evaluation of Cystic Fibrosis Conductance Transmembrane Regulator (CFTR) expression in human monocytes

Background

Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations of CFTR gene, a protein kinase A-activated anion channel, and is associated to a persistent and excessive chronic lung inflammation, suggesting functional alterations of immune cells. Leukocytes express detectable levels of CFTR but the molecule has not been fully characterized in these cells.

Methods

Freshly isolated monocytes from healthy individuals and CF patients were assessed by protein expression, single cell electrophysiological and membrane depolarization assays.

Results

We recorded chloride currents by patch clamp in healthy monocytes, after the administration of a CFTR stimulus. Currents were sensitive to a specific blocker of the CFTR channel, CFTR_inh-172 and were absent in CF monocytes. Next, we evaluated the effects of ex vivo exposure of monocytes from cystic fibrosis patients carrying the F508del mutation to a chemical corrector, Vertex-325. We found an increase in CFTR expression by confocal microscopy and a recovery of CFTR function by both patch clamp and single cell fluorescence analysis.

Conclusions

We confirm the expression of functional CFTR in human monocytes and demonstrate that blood monocytes can represent an adequate source of primary cells to assess new therapies and define diagnosis of CF.

General significance

Tests to evaluate CFTR functional abnormalities in CF disease might greatly benefit from the availability of a convenient source of primary cells. This electrophysiological study promotes the use of monocytes as a minimally invasive tool to study and monitor CFTR function in individual patients.     

La variabilité graphique du Molí del Salt (Vimbodí, Catalogne, Espagne) et l'art mobilier de la fin du Paléolithique supérieur à l'est de la Péninsule Ibérique

The Upper Paleolithic of Catalonia has been so far characterized by a very weak presence of artistic representations. This scarcity was especially surprising if we take into account the huge number of discoveries from other zones of the Iberian Peninsula (Valencia, the Cantabrian region). In this paper we present four objects of portable art found at the Molí del Salt site (Vimbodí, Conca de Barberà, Tarragona). Below a mesolithic layer, dated to 8 ka BP, there is an Upper Magdalenian sequence with several dates between 10.8 and 12.5 ka BP. These magdalenian levels have yielded four plaques of schist with engravings, including several animal figurines and one human representations. Once the objects are described, we will place them in the context of the portable art from the Late Upper Paleolithic of Mediterranean Spain. From these data, the chronocultural successions based on the Upper Magdalenian-Microlaminar Epipaleolithic distinction will be discussed.     

Exotic Vertebrate Fauna in the Remote and Pristine Sub-Antarctic Cape Horn Archipelago, Chile

Pristine wilderness is a scarce global resource, but exotic species are so common that they constitute a principal component of worldwide ecological change. The relationship between these two topics, invasion and remoteness, was the impetus behind five years of fieldwork aimed at identifying the assemblage and range of exotic vertebrates in Cape Horn, Chile, identified as one of the world's most pristine wilderness areas. While the archipelago has extremely low human population density and vast tracts of undisturbed land, we discovered that several terrestrial vertebrate groups were dominated by exotic species. Native birds were diverse (approx. 154 spp), and only 1.3% (or two spp.) were introduced. In contrast, exotic terrestrial mammals (12 spp.) and freshwater fish (three spp.) outnumbered their native counterparts, constituting 55% and 75% of the assemblages. Using GIS, we found that not all areas were impacted equally, largely due to intensity of human occupation. Human settled islands (Navarino and Tierra del Fuego) hosted the greatest number of exotics, but humans alone did not explain observed patterns. Remote islands also had introduced species. North American beavers (Castor canadensis), American minks (Mustela vison) and feral domestic dogs and cats were particularly widespread, and their range in isolated parts of the study area raised important ecological and management questions. In conclusion, the Cape Horn Archipelago retained areas free of exotic vertebrates, particularly parts of the Cape Horn and Alberto D’Agostini National Parks, but at many sites introduced species were overwhelming native biota and altering these previously remote natural ecosystems.     

Rainforest conifers of Eocene Patagonia: Attached cones and foliage of the extant Southeast Asian and Australasian genus Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae)

? Premise of the study: Eocene caldera-lake beds at Laguna del Hunco (LH, ca. 52.2 Ma) and Río Pichileufú (RP, ca. 47.7 Ma) in Argentine Patagonia provide copious information about the biological history of Gondwana. Several plant genera from these sites are known as fossils from southern Australia and New Zealand and survive only in Australasian rainforests. The potential presence of Dacrycarpus (Podocarpaceae) holds considerable interest due to its extensive foliage-fossil record in Gondwana, its remarkably broad modern distribution in Southeast Asian and Australasian rainforests, its high physiological moisture requirements, and its bird-dispersed seeds. However, the unique seed cones that firmly diagnose Dacrycarpus were not previously known from the fossil record. ? Methods: I describe and interpret fertile (LH) and vegetative (LH and RP) material of Dacrycarpus and present a nomenclatural revision for fossil Dacrycarpus from South America. ? Key results: Dacrycarpus puertae sp. nov. is the first fossil occurrence of the unusual seed cones that typify living Dacrycarpus, attached to characteristic foliage, and of attached Dacrycarpus pollen cones and foliage. Dacrycarpus puertae is indistinguishable from living D. imbricatus (montane, Burma to Fiji). Dacrycarpus chilensis (Engelhardt) comb. nov. is proposed for Eocene vegetative material from Chile. ? Conclusions: Modern-aspect Dacrycarpus was present in Eocene Patagonia, demonstrating an astonishingly wide-ranging paleogeographic history and implying a long evolutionary association with bird dispersers. Dacrycarpus puertae provides the first significant Asian link for Eocene Patagonian floras, strengthens the biogeographic connections from Patagonia to Australasia across Antarctica during the warm Eocene, and indicates high-rainfall paleoenvironments.     

Ignoring non‐English‐language studies may bias ecological meta‐analyses

Meta‐analysis plays a crucial role in syntheses of quantitative evidence in ecology and biodiversity conservation. The reliability of estimates in meta‐analyses strongly depends on unbiased sampling of primary studies. Although earlier studies have explored potential biases in ecological meta‐analyses, biases in reported statistical results and associated study characteristics published in different languages have never been tested in environmental sciences. We address this knowledge gap by systematically searching published meta‐analyses and comparing effect‐size estimates between English‐ and Japanese‐language studies included in existing meta‐analyses. Of the 40 published ecological meta‐analysis articles authored by those affiliated to Japanese institutions, we find that three meta‐analysis articles searched for studies in the two languages and involved sufficient numbers of English‐ and Japanese‐language studies, resulting in four eligible meta‐analyses (i.e., four meta‐analyses conducted in the three meta‐analysis articles). In two of the four, effect sizes differ significantly between the English‐ and Japanese‐language studies included in the meta‐analyses, causing considerable changes in overall mean effect sizes and even their direction when Japanese‐language studies are excluded. The observed differences in effect sizes are likely attributable to systematic differences in reported statistical results and associated study characteristics, particularly taxa and ecosystems, between English‐ and Japanese‐language studies. Despite being based on a small sample size, our findings suggest that ignoring non‐English‐language studies may bias outcomes of ecological meta‐analyses, due to systematic differences in study characteristics and effect‐size estimates between English‐ and non‐English languages. We provide a list of actions that meta‐analysts could take in the future to reduce the risk of language bias.     

Narcocorridos and newbie drug dealers: the changing image of the Mexican Narco on US television

As a Spanish-language broadcast programme based on a sympathetic Mexican character who also happens to be a drug kingpin, La Reina del Sur negotiates the perilous terrain of the European drug trade and an omnipresent hostility directed at Mexicans. As cable programmes with the industrial freedom to venture into spaces in between prosocial and antisocial, Weeds and Breaking Bad attempt to incorporate a more nuanced and culturally informed characterization of the Mexican drug dealer – one that notably impacts the relationship of the white protagonists to their new occupations as producers and dealers of illegal substances. These three series – produced independently of one another and distributed on three different networks – have crossed paths in a manner that can be revealed through the intricacies of a controversial and complex cultural artifact: the narcocorrido.