Review
Biology
Carme Tuneu-Corral, Xavier Puig-Montserrat, Daniel Riba-Bertolin, Danilo Russo, Hugo Rebelo, Mar Cabeza, Adria Lopez-Baucells
Summary: Bats play a significant role in pest control in agriculture, providing important ecosystem services. Conservation measures such as increasing habitat diversity, providing additional roosts, implementing protective laws, and reducing pesticide use can enhance the efficiency of pest predation by bats.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aiqing Lin, Jiqian Li, Yinli Hu, Maojun Zhong, Minglun Yu, Nina Ma, Tingting Wei, Jinhong Luo, Jiang Feng
Summary: A study shows that the defensive tactics of moths, the countertactics of bats, and the availability of moths collectively shape the diets of insectivorous bats. This highlights the importance of using a combination of behavioral experiments and molecular genetic techniques to understand the complex interactions between predators and prey in nature.
Article
Entomology
Ning Di, Kai Zhang, Qingxuan Xu, Fan Zhang, James D. Harwood, Su Wang, Nicolas Desneux
Summary: The invasive pest Spodoptera frugiperda poses a major threat to agriculture in China. Experimental results suggest that Orius sauteri and Harmonia axyridis have the potential to control this pest through predation.
Article
Microbiology
Quinton A. Krueger, Madisun H. Shore, Adam M. Reitzel
Summary: This study investigated bacterial transmission from prey to predator in a simple estuarine food web. The researchers found that the prey-mediated method was more successful in introducing bacteria to the host organisms compared to the solution uptake method. The concentration of bacteria increased initially but decreased over time.
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ryo Nakano, Akio Ito, Susumu Tokumaru
Summary: A study has found that using ultrasonic pulses that mimic bat echolocation calls can effectively suppress the intrusion of moths into agricultural fields, reducing plant damage and the need for insecticides.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Maria Fernanda Jimenez, Gamaliel Ble, Manuel Falconi
Summary: In this work, the dynamics of a differential equation system modeling pest control in plants using a biocontrol agent is analyzed. The impact of the biocontrol agent on the pest is measured, and conditions for pest eradication and species coexistence are shown. Some interesting results are found regarding the recovery of the plant population and the existence of equilibrium points.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Tom Staton, Richard Walters, Jo Smith, Tom Breeze, Robbie Girling
Summary: By comparing two different cutting regimes for understoreys in an apple-arable agroforestry system, it was found that promoting flowering understoreys can increase natural enemies, reduce aphid colonies and damage, and enhance pollinator visitation, leading to higher farm income. This study provides empirical evidence that management to promote flowering understoreys in agroforestry systems can be a win-win option to improve invertebrate diversity, associated ecosystem services, and farm income.
Article
Forestry
Leonardo Ancillotto, Rosario Rummo, Giulia Agostinetto, Nicola Tommasi, Antonio P. Garonna, Flavia de Benedetta, Umberto Bernardo, Andrea Galimberti, Danilo Russo
Summary: Forest ecosystems play a crucial role in conserving global biodiversity and human wellbeing. However, the increasing impact of environmental changes such as climate change, biological invasions, and forest pests poses a significant threat to forests. This study found that forest bats, specifically Barbastella barbastellus and Plecotus auritus, can act as important suppressors of agroforestry pest insects. Preserving animal diversity in forests is essential not only for the health of these ecosystems but also for the surrounding habitats, including farmland.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dong Liang, Jun Xia, Jinxi Song, Haotian Sun, Wenjin Xu
Summary: This study used eDNA technology to investigate bacterial and eukaryotic communities in different seasons in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Weihe River. It found significant heterogeneity in community structures based on season and geography, with selective theory and deterministic processes explaining microbial community responses to seasonal changes. The study also identified strong correlations between key functional genes related to nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, physical and chemical properties of water, and microbial networks in response to eco-hydrological changes.
FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Nathan L. Haan, Douglas A. Landis
Summary: Top-down suppression of herbivores is a critical service in agricultural landscapes, and the adoption of bioenergy cropping systems can affect this service. Our study found strong differences in attack rates across different types of cropping systems, with birds and small mammals being the main predators in annual crops and chewing arthropods in perennial crops.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY BIOENERGY
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Arash Kheirodin, Pedro F. S. Toledo, Alvin M. Simmons, Jason M. Schmidt
Summary: Insect herbivore abundances in agricultural fields are influenced by the surrounding landscape complexity, which can regulate herbivore populations through direct and indirect effects. More research is needed to study how landscape complexity mediates multi-species interactions within fields.
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
(2023)
Article
Entomology
David R. Haviland, Stephanie M. Rill, Chelsea A. Gordon
Summary: The study found that in almond orchards in California, biological control of spider mites is primarily carried out by the six-spotted thrips, Scolothrips sexmaculatus Pergande. The activity of female S. sexmaculatus is more prominent, especially in the warmer and food-abundant summer months, and the predator-prey relationship helps to maintain a balance between the two species.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Manuela Seminara, Remzi Atlihan, Nicholas F. Britton, Semra Demir, Mehmet Ramazan Risvanli, Ezio Venturino
Summary: The study demonstrates that the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi effectively keeps the pest population at low levels.
ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Johanna G. Kuhne, Jeremy J. Austin, Terry B. Reardon, Thomas A. A. Prowse
Summary: This study investigates the diet of the southern bent-wing bat (SBWB) using arthropod DNA metabarcoding. The results show that moths are the main component of the SBWB's diet, many of which are associated with agricultural land use. The findings suggest that the SBWB may contribute to controlling moth populations considered as agricultural pests.
Article
Ecology
Vanessa A. Mata, Luis P. da Silva, Joana Verissimo, Pedro Horta, Helena Raposeira, Gary F. McCracken, Hugo Rebelo, Pedro Beja
Summary: In multifunctional landscapes, diverse communities of flying vertebrate predators play a vital role in insect pest control services. By combining DNA metabarcoding and ecological network analysis, individual species within diverse predator communities that have a disproportionate contribution to pest control services can be identified. This framework can help target species for conservation biocontrol efforts in multifunctional landscapes.
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
(2021)
Review
Biology
Francesca Festa, Leonardo Ancillotto, Luca Santini, Michela Pacifici, Ricardo Rocha, Nia Toshkova, Francisco Amorim, Ana Benitez-Lopez, Adi Domer, Daniela Hamidovic, Stephanie Kramer-Schadt, Fiona Mathews, Viktoriia Radchuk, Hugo Rebelo, Ireneusz Ruczynski, Estelle Solem, Asaf Tsoar, Danilo Russo, Orly Razgour
Summary: Understanding how species respond to climate change is crucial, and bats are particularly sensitive to climate change due to their biology. However, research on bat responses to climate change is geographically biased and lacking in empirical studies. Range shifts and changes in species diversity are the most commonly reported responses, but the outcomes vary among different bat families. More empirical studies and standardized study designs are needed to have a comprehensive understanding of bat responses to climate change.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ricardo Rodriguez-Varela, Kristjan H. S. Moore, S. Sunna Ebenesersdottir, Gulsah Merve Kilinc, Anna Kjellstrom, Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay, Clara Alfsdotter, Birgitta Berglund, Loey Alrawi, Natalija Kashuba, Veronica Sobrado, Vendela Kempe Lagerholm, Edmund Gilbert, Gianpiero L. Cavalleri, Eivind Hovig, Ingrid Kockum, Tomas Olsson, Lars Alfredsson, Thomas F. Hansen, Thomas Werge, Arielle R. Munters, Carolina Bernhardsson, Birgitte Skar, Axel Christophersen, Gordon Turner-Walker, Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Eva Daskalaki, Ayca Omrak, Patxi Perez-Ramallo, Pontus Skoglund, Linus Girdland-Flink, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Kerstin Liden, Mattias Jakobsson, Lars Einarsson, Helena Victor, Maja Krzewinska, Torun Zachrisson, Jan Stora, Kari Stefansson, Agnar Helgason, Anders Gotherstrom
Summary: We analyze a 2,000-year genetic study of Scandinavia, using 48 new and 249 published ancient genomes and genotypes from 16,638 modern individuals. Our findings reveal regional variation in gene flow from the eastern Baltic, the British-Irish Isles, and southern Europe. British-Irish ancestry was common in Scandinavia during the Viking period, while eastern Baltic ancestry was more localized to Gotland and central Sweden. We also observe a decrease in current levels of external ancestry in some regions, suggesting less contribution from ancient immigrants to the modern Scandinavian gene pool compared to earlier periods.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Adria Lopez-Baucells, Natalia Revilla-Martin, Maria Mas, Pedro Alonso-Alonso, Ivana Budinski, Sara Fraixedas, Alvaro Fernandez-Llamazares
Summary: The media plays a crucial role in shaping people's attitudes towards conservation issues. Understanding how bats are portrayed in the media is important for bat conservation, especially given recent fearmongering and misinformation about bat-related risks. In this study, we reviewed bat-related articles published in 15 newspapers from Western Europe's five most populated countries before 2019. We analyzed the portrayal of bats as a threat to human health, the general attitudes towards bats in these articles, and the readers' responses.
Article
Food Science & Technology
Ana Rita Carreiro, Jaime A. Ramos, Vanessa Mata, Nathalie M. Almeida, Vitor H. Paiva, Ricardo Jorge Lopes
Summary: Taxonomic identification of food is crucial for traceability pipelines during fish processing. Genetic methods have increased discrimination power at the species level. This study finds a high rate of taxonomic miss-assignment in tuna processing, emphasizing the need for improved traceability processes.
Article
Ornithology
Julia Zurdo, Adrian Barrero, Luis P. da Silva, Daniel Bustillo-de la Rosa, Julia Gomez-Catasus, Manuel B. B. Morales, Juan Traba, Vanessa A. A. Mata
Summary: This study used DNA metabarcoding to investigate the diets of six steppe passerine species in two Special Protection Areas in central Spain. The results showed a significant overlap in dietary niches among the bird species, but the rare and threatened species had more distinct diets. This study contributes to our understanding of shrub-steppe bird diets and their trophic interactions, and provides valuable ecological information for biodiversity conservation in scarce and threatened habitats.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lucie A. Bergeron, Soren Besenbacher, Jiao Zheng, Panyi Li, Mads Frost Bertelsen, Benoit Quintard, Joseph I. Hoffman, Zhipeng Li, Judy St Leger, Changwei Shao, Josefin Stiller, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Mikkel H. Schierup, Guojie Zhang
Summary: We sequenced and compared high-coverage genomes of 151 parent-offspring trios from 68 species of vertebrates and found that the per-generation mutation rate varies greatly among species, with males having higher rates than females in mammals and birds. We identified generation time, age at maturity, and species-level fecundity as key factors influencing this variation. Species with larger long-term effective population sizes tend to have lower mutation rates, supporting the drift barrier hypothesis. Domesticated animals with shorter generation times display exceptionally high yearly mutation rates, emphasizing the importance of generation time in mutation rate evolution.
Article
Parasitology
Branka Bajic, Oskar Werb, Ivana Budinski, Jelena Blagojevic, Juliane Schaer, Jaap van Schaik
Summary: This study investigated the prevalence and distribution of Polychromophilus parasites in European bats and their nycteribiid vectors. A total of 215 bat flies collected from two bat species in Serbia were screened for Polychromophilus infections and analyzed by gene sequencing. The results showed a high diversity of P. melanipherus parasites in Miniopterus hosts and suggested regular encounter with this parasite in secondary hosts.
PARASITES & VECTORS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Pnina Cohen, Roberto Bacilieri, Jazmin Ramos-Madrigal, Eyal Privman, Elisabetta Boaretto, Audrey Weber, Daniel Fuks, Ehud Weiss, Tali Erickson-Gini, Scott Bucking, Yotam Tepper, Deborah Cvikel, Joshua Schmidt, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Nathan Wales, Guy Bar-Oz, Meirav Meiri
Summary: Recent excavations in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel revealed a society that established large-scale viticulture in an arid environment. By analyzing grapevine pips using genome-wide sequencing and radiocarbon dating, researchers found evidence of continuous grape cultivation in the Southern Levant for centuries. The genetically diverse pips also provided insights into ancient cultivation strategies and their contribution to agricultural productivity and food security.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ostaizka Aizpurua, Kees Blijleven, Urvish Trivedi, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Antton Alberdi
Summary: The impact of microorganisms on the evolution of animal hosts is a significant question in biology, yet the underlying mechanisms and causal relationships remain unresolved. Gut-on-a-chip models offer a novel approach to studying how animals perceive and respond to microbes, providing insights into the role of host-microbiota interactions in animal evolution.
TRENDS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Pei Zhang, Yuanzhen Zhu, Qunfei Guo, Ji Li, Xiaoyu Zhan, Hao Yu, Nianxia Xie, Huishuang Tan, Nina Lundholm, Lydia Garcia-Cuetos, Michael D. Martin, Meritxell Anto Subirats, Yi-Hsien Su, Inaki Ruiz-Trillo, Mark Q. Martindale, Jr-Kai Yu, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Guojie Zhang, Qiye Li
Summary: By analyzing the RNA editomes of 22 Holozoa species, we provide substantial evidence that A-to-I mRNA editing is a regulatory innovation that originated in the last common ancestor of extant metazoans. This ancient biochemical process is preserved in most metazoans and primarily targets endogenous dsRNA formed by young repeats. We also find that intermolecular pairing of sense-antisense transcripts is an important mechanism for forming dsRNA substrates for A-to-I editing in some lineages. Recoding editing is rarely shared across lineages but preferentially targets genes involved in neural and cytoskeleton systems in bilaterians. We conclude that metazoan A-to-I editing initially emerged as a safeguard mechanism against repeat-derived dsRNA and was later co-opted into diverse biological processes due to its mutagenic nature.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Diogo F. Ferreira, Alexandra Darling, Crinan Jarrett, Patrick Jules Atagana, Phallin Romeal Sandjo, Hermann Taedoumg, Andreanna J. Welch, Hugo Rebelo, Luke L. Powell
Summary: This study investigated the impact of cocoa farm management on bat diversity metrics in African cocoa farms. The results showed that shade tree cover and height were the main drivers associated with an increase in bat diversity. Fruit-eating and nectar-feeding bats were positively associated with planted shade trees, while richness varied with the size of shade trees. The findings suggest that policymakers should promote cocoa management systems that include forest and planted shade trees to support a rich community of bats and maintain ecosystem services.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Estel Blanch, Adria Lopez-Baucells, Vanessa A. A. Mata, Carles Flaquer, David Lopez-Bosch
Summary: Understanding ecological niches is crucial for studying the coexistence of similar species. Niche overlap can lead to competition, so sympatric species must differ to some extent in order to coexist. This study used DNA metabarcoding to examine the dietary overlap of two trawling bats in the Mediterranean region. The results showed that although there were minor differences in diet composition, the bats had highly overlapping dietary niches and exploited similar food resources. The findings suggest that these species have found a balance to co-occur without competition.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Ricardo S. Ceia, Nuno Faria, Pedro B. Lopes, Joana Alves, Antonio Alves da Silva, Carlos Valente, Catarina I. Goncalves, Vanessa A. Mata, Jose P. Sousa, Luis P. da Silva
Summary: This study investigates the contribution of bird communities to insect pest control in eucalypt plantations. The results show a negative correlation between avian insectivory and weevil-caused damage, using both taxonomic and functional diversity indices, as well as examining different groups and species of functional insectivores. The abundance of canopy foragers is particularly important in reducing damage caused by weevils.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Fisheries
Edna Correia, Jose Pedro Granadeiro, Barbara Santos, Vanessa A. Mata, Emanuel Dias, Aissa Regalla, Teresa Catry
Summary: The diet of the blackchin guitarfish in West Africa was assessed using DNA metabarcoding, revealing a preference for crustaceans, particularly caramote prawn and fiddler crab. Bony fishes were also found in some stomachs. Conservation action for intertidal habitats and their associated benthic invertebrates is crucial for the survival of this critically endangered species.
JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Parasitology
Milan Miljevic, Marija Rajicic, Gerald Umhang, Branka Bajic, Olivera Bjelic Cabrilo, Ivana Budinski, Jelena Blagojevic
Summary: This study identified and explored the genetic diversity of Hydatigera and other taeniid species. The researchers found four taeniid species, including Hydatigera kamiyai and H. taeniaeformis sensu stricto (s.s.). The study contributes to the understanding of genetic diversity, host suitability, and geographic distribution of these tapeworm species.
PARASITES & VECTORS
(2023)