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News and perspectives : words matter in primatology
Get PDFOpen access funding provided by SCELC, Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium.Postings on social media on Twitter (now X), BioAnthropology News (Facebook), and other venues, as well as recent publications in prominent journals, show that primatologists, ecologists, and other researchers are questioning the terms "Old World" and "New World" due to their colonial implications and history. The terms are offensive if they result in erasing Indigenous voices and history, ignoring the fact that Indigenous peoples were in the Americas long before European colonization. Language use is not without context, but alternative terminology is not always obvious and available. In this perspective, we share opinions expressed by an international group of primatologists who considered questions about the use of these terms, whether primatologists should adjust language use, and how to move forward. The diversity of opinions provides insight into how conventional terms used in primatological research and conservation may impact our effectiveness in these domains.Peer reviewe
Functional host-specific adaptation of the intestinal microbiome in hominids
Get PDFOpen Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.Fine-scale knowledge of the changes in composition and function of the human gut microbiome compared that of our closest relatives is critical for understanding the evolutionary processes underlying its developmental trajectory. To infer taxonomic and functional changes in the gut microbiome across hominids at different timescales, we perform high-resolution metagenomic-based analyzes of the fecal microbiome from over two hundred samples including diverse human populations, as well as wild-living chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. We find human-associated taxa depleted within non-human apes and patterns of host-specific gut microbiota, suggesting the widespread acquisition of novel microbial clades along the evolutionary divergence of hosts. In contrast, we reveal multiple lines of evidence for a pervasive loss of diversity in human populations in correlation with a high Human Development Index, including evolutionarily conserved clades. Similarly, patterns of co-phylogeny between microbes and hosts are found to be disrupted in humans. Together with identifying individual microbial taxa and functional adaptations that correlate to host phylogeny, these findings offer insights into specific candidates playing a role in the diverging trajectories of the gut microbiome of hominids. We find that repeated horizontal gene transfer and gene loss, as well as the adaptation to transient microaerobic conditions appear to have played a role in the evolution of the human gut microbiome.Peer reviewe
Developing expert scientific consensus on the environmental and societal effects of marine artificial structures prior to decommissioning
Get PDFThis work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the INSITE programme [INSITE SYNTHESIS project, grant number NE/W009889/1].Thousands of artificial (‘human-made’) structures are present in the marine environment, many at or approaching end-of-life and requiring urgent decisions regarding their decommissioning. No consensus has been reached on which decommissioning option(s) result in optimal environmental and societal outcomes, in part, owing to a paucity of evidence from real-world decommissioning case studies. To address this significant challenge, we asked a worldwide panel of scientists to provide their expert opinion. They were asked to identify and characterise the ecosystem effects of artificial structures in the sea, their causes and consequences, and to identify which, if any, should be retained following decommissioning. Experts considered that most of the pressures driving ecological and societal effects from marine artificial structures (MAS) were of medium severity, occur frequently, and are dependent on spatial scale with local-scale effects of greater magnitude than regional effects. The duration of many effects following decommissioning were considered to be relatively short, in the order of days. Overall, environmental effects of structures were considered marginally undesirable, while societal effects marginally desirable. Experts therefore indicated that any decision to leave MAS in place at end-of-life to be more beneficial to society than the natural environment. However, some individual environmental effects were considered desirable and worthy of retention, especially in certain geographic locations, where structures can support improved trophic linkages, increases in tourism, habitat provision, and population size, and provide stability in population dynamics. The expert analysis consensus that the effects of MAS are both negative and positive for the environment and society, gives no strong support for policy change whether removal or retention is favoured until further empirical evidence is available to justify change to the status quo. The combination of desirable and undesirable effects associated with MAS present a significant challenge for policy- and decision-makers in their justification to implement decommissioning options. Decisions may need to be decided on a case-by-case basis accounting for the trade-off in costs and benefits at a local level.Peer reviewe
African savanna raptors show evidence of widespread population collapse and a growing dependence on protected areas
Get PDFFunding: Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, through its collaborative program with the University of Dschang, Cameroon, at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies in Cameroon (CEDC).The conversion of natural habitats to farmland is a major cause of biodiversity loss, and poses the greatest extinction risk to birds worldwide. Tropical raptors are of particular concern, being relatively slow-breeding, apex predators and scavengers, whose disappearance can trigger extensive cascading effects. Many of Africa’s raptors are at significant risk from habitat conversion, prey-base depletion and persecution, driven principally by human population expansion. Here, we describe multi-regional trends among 42 African raptor species, 88% of which had declined over a c. 20–40 year period; 69% exceeding IUCN criteria classifying species at risk of extinction. Large raptors had experienced significantly steeper declines than smaller species, and this disparity was more pronounced on unprotected land. Declines were greater in West Africa than elsewhere, and more than twice as severe outside of protected areas (PAs) than within. Worryingly, species suffering the steepest declines had become significantly more dependent on PAs, demonstrating the importance of expanding conservation areas to cover 30% of land by 2030; a key target agreed at CBD COP15. Our findings also highlight the significance of a recent African-led proposal to strengthen PA management; initiatives considered fundamental to safeguarding global biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and climate resilience.Peer reviewe
Photoluminescent nano-CsPbBr3 embedded in Cs4PbBr6 crystals : formation mechanism and properties
Get PDFWS would like to thank the China Scholarships Council and the University of St Andrews for the CSC-St Andrews studentship. Part of this work was financially supported by the National Science and Technology Council in Taiwan (Contract No. NSTC 112-2113-M-002-020) for RSL.Luminescent crystalline cesium lead bromide has been synthesized by using an antisolvent method with the nominal ratio of Cs:Pb in the precursors varying in a wide range from 4.5:1 to 1:1. Although the powder X-ray diffraction patterns of all the specimens show Cs4PbBr6 as a pure phase or a main phase, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images reveal a large amount of CsPbBr3 nanocrystallites embedded in all the Cs4PbBr6 crystals. A formation mechanism of these perovskite nanocrystallites serving as actual active centers of photoluminescence is proposed. The most crucial step in the crystal growth is the deposition of a noncrystalline coating layer containing polymerized PbBr64– linked by Cs+ with the Cs:Pb ratio of about 3:1, and therefore, the actual crystal growth sites are at the interface between the crystal and the coating layer, instead of the crystal/solution interface. The local lack of Cs during the formation of Cs4PbBr6 results in the formation of CsPbBr3 nanocrystallites inside the parent crystals of Cs4PbBr6. The photoluminescence quantum yield and stability of the embedded CsPbBr3 nanocrystallites are significantly improved in comparison with bare CsPbBr3 crystals. Such simultaneous growth of parent crystals and the embedded nanocrystallites sheds light on further development of cesium lead halide-based photoluminescent materials.Peer reviewe
Estuaries house Earth’s oldest known non-marine eukaryotes
No full textFunding: EES acknowledges financial support from a NERC Frontiers grant (NE/V010824/1).Some of the oldest postulated non-marine eukaryotic microfossils occur in the 1.1–1.0 Ga Poll a’Mhuillt, Loch na Dal, and Diabaig formations in NW Scotland. These sedimentary strata have traditionally been interpreted as lacustrine. Here we report new trace element, sulfur isotope and metal abundance data and sedimentological observations for the latter two units. The geochemical data imply low salinity, oxic conditions whereas sedimentological features indicate marine tide and storm processes. Interpreting their depositional settings as estuaries, rather than lakes, with seawater-freshwater mixing fronts reconciles the contrasting datasets. Thus, whilst these microbial habitats likely experienced frequent seawater input, they appear to have experienced the lowest salinity conditions of all known in situ fossil assemblages in the Precambrian. The Torridonian may in fact be representative of the low-salinity habitats predicted for ancestral eukaryotes based on phylogenetic reconstructions. Estuarine settings with gradients in water chemistry over space and time may have facilitated the transition of eukaryotic life from land to sea.Peer reviewe
Expectations of progression to university among pupils in rural communities : the role of social influences
Get PDFFunding: Authors thank the University of St Andrews, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council for their support.This paper examines the social influences determining S5/Year 12 and S6/Year 13 (final year) pupils’ expectations of progression to university in a Scottish rural context in which pupils are less likely to go to university. In particular, we investigate the extent to which perceived support from parents, peers, and school, taking into account pupils’ own evaluation of their qualifications, is associated with their self-assessed likelihood of university entry. Our sample is drawn from a repeated questionnaire completed by pupils at three Scottish state secondary schools whose catchment areas are mainly rural. Our results are twofold. First, it is the perceived enthusiasm of their parents and peers, rather than their school, which is primarily correlated with pupils’ expectations of progression to university all else equal. This is true whether pupils report low or high qualification barriers to university entry. Second, perceived parental support is stronger for those whose parents had themselves attended university, especially for pupils identifying low qualification barriers. Given that school support appears to lack significance in pupils’ expectations of progression to university in this context, there is potentially scope for policymakers, universities and schools located in these rural communities to strengthen this influence.Peer reviewe
Air pollution reduces the individuals’ life satisfaction through health impairment
Get PDFFunding: This paper was funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Saltire Early Career Fellow- ships grant (RSE Reference Number: 1846).The impact of air pollution on individuals’ happiness and life satisfaction (LS), and its relationship to other factors became the focus of recent research. Though, the underlying mechanism of how air pollution impacts LS remains unclear. In this study, we examined the direct and indirect effect of air pollution on individuals’ LS through health mediation. We used longitudinal individual-level data from “Understanding-Society: the UK Household-Longitudinal Study” on 59,492 individuals with 347,377 repeated responses across 11 years (2009–2019) that was linked to yearly concentrations of NO2, SO2, and particulate-matter (PM10, PM2.5) pollution. Generalized structural equation models with multilevel ordered-logistic regression were used to examine the direct effect of air pollution on LS and the indirect effect from health impairment. Higher concentrations of NO2 (coefficient = 0.009, 95%CI = 0.007,0.012, p < 0.001), SO2 (coefficient = 0.025, 95%CI = 0.017,0.034, p < 0.001), PM10 (coefficient = 0.019, 95%CI = 0.013,0.025, p < 0.001), and PM2.5 (coefficient = 0.025, 95%CI = 0.017,0.033, p < 0.001) pollutants were associated with poorer health, while poorer health was associated with reduced LS (coefficient = -0.605, 95%CI = -0.614,-0.595, p < 0.001). Mediation path analysis showed that air pollution impacted individuals’ LS directly and indirectly. The percent of total effect mediated through health was 44.03% for NO2, 73.95% for SO2, 49.88% for PM10, and 45.42% for PM2.5 and the ratio of indirect to direct effect was 0.79 for NO2, 2.84 for SO2, 0.99 for PM10, and 0.83 for PM2.5. Health plays a major mediating role in the relationship between air pollution and LS. To alleviate the impact of air pollution on LS, future strategies should focus on health promotion besides reducing air pollution emissions.Peer reviewe
Multiplying co-intensional properties : a reply to Streumer
Get PDFBart Streumer employs a reductio ad absurdum to show that a hyperintensional conception of properties has a multiplication problem; roughly, this conception of properties leads to the absurd result that we can multiply distinct but co-intensional properties without end. In this paper, I will explain why Streumer’s reductio fails to convince.Peer reviewe
Machine learning reveals singing rhythms of male Pacific field crickets are clock controlled
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh (to M.L.W.), the Royal Society (UF110155 to S.E.R.), and the Wellcome Trust (202769/Z/16/Z to S.E.R.), International Human Frontier Science Program Organisation (LT000325/2019 to Q.G.), and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/T0006191/1 to N.W.B. and J.G.R.).Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous in nature and endogenous circadian clocks drive the daily expression of many fitness-related behaviors. However, little is known about whether such traits are targets of selection imposed by natural enemies. In Hawaiian populations of the nocturnally active Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus), males sing to attract mates, yet sexually selected singing rhythms are also subject to natural selection from the acoustically orienting and deadly parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea. Here, we use T. oceanicus to test whether singing rhythms are endogenous and scheduled by circadian clocks, making them possible targets of selection imposed by flies. We also develop a novel audio-to-circadian analysis pipeline, capable of extracting useful parameters from which to train machine learning algorithms and process large quantities of audio data. Singing rhythms fulfilled all criteria for endogenous circadian clock control, including being driven by photoschedule, self-sustained periodicity of approximately 24 h, and being robust to variation in temperature. Furthermore, singing rhythms varied across individuals, which might suggest genetic variation on which natural and sexual selection pressures can act. Sexual signals and ornaments are well-known targets of selection by natural enemies, but our findings indicate that the circadian timing of those traits’ expression may also determine fitness.Peer reviewe
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