Time‐stamped camera data are increasingly used to study temporal patterns in species and community ecology, including species’ activity patterns and niche partitioning. Given the importance of niche ...partitioning for facilitating coexistence between sympatric species, understanding how emerging environmental stressors – climate and landscape change, biodiversity loss and concomitant changes to community composition – affect temporal niche partitioning is of immediate importance for advancing ecological theory and informing management decisions. A large variety of analytical approaches have been applied to camera‐trap data to ask key questions about species activity patterns and temporal overlap among heterospecifics. Despite the many advances for describing and quantifying these temporal patterns, few studies have explicitly tested how interacting biotic and abiotic variables influence species’ activity and capacity to segregate along the temporal niche axis. To address this gap, we suggest coordinated distributed experiments to capture sufficient camera‐trap data across a range of anthropogenic stressors and community compositions. This will facilitate a standardized approach to assessing the impacts of multiple variables on species’ behaviours and interactions. Ultimately, further integration of spatial and temporal analyses of camera‐trap data is critical for improving our understanding of how anthropogenic activities and landscape changes are altering competitive interactions and the dynamics of animal communities.
Within the last decade, camera‐trap data have been increasingly used to study species activity patterns and niche partitioning, as well as a large variety of methods to analyse the data. This review outlines the questions that may be asked from camera‐trap data regarding species activities, temporal niche partitioning and the abiotic and biotic variables which may influence species behaviours and interactions, and highlights those approaches where gains have been best made in improving our understanding of such processes. We also explore the future directions where our understanding of the combined spatiotemporal aspects of species niche partitioning and responses to emerging environmental stressors (e.g. climate and landscape changes, biodiversity loss, changes to community composition) can best be advanced.
The application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a laser-based remote-sensing technology that is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, is generating a fundamental ...shift in Mesoamerican archaeology and has the potential to transform research in forested areas world-wide. Much as radiocarbon dating that half a century ago moved archaeology forward by grounding archaeological remains in time, LiDAR is proving to be a catalyst for an improved spatial understanding of the past. With LiDAR, ancient societies can be contextualized within a fully defined landscape. Interpretations about the scale and organization of densely forested sites no longer are constrained by sample size, as they were when mapping required laborious on-ground survey. The ability to articulate ancient landscapes fully permits a better understanding of the complexity of ancient Mesoamerican urbanism and also aids in modern conservation efforts. The importance of this geospatial innovation is demonstrated with newly acquired LiDAR data from the archaeological sites of Caracol, Cayo, Belize and Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico. These data illustrate the potential of technology to act as a catalytic enabler of rapid transformational change in archaeological research and interpretation and also underscore the value of on-the-ground archaeological investigation in validating and contextualizing results.
The OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) will provide remote measurements of mineralogy and thermophysical properties of Bennu to map its surface, help select the OSIRIS-REx sampling site, ...and investigate the Yarkovsky effect. OTES is a Fourier Transform spectrometer covering the spectral range 5.71–100 μm (
1750
–
100
cm
−
1
) with a spectral sample interval of
8.66
cm
−
1
and a 6.5-mrad field of view. The OTES telescope is a 15.2-cm diameter Cassegrain telescope that feeds a flat-plate Michelson moving mirror mounted on a linear voice-coil motor assembly. A single uncooled deuterated
l
-alanine doped triglycine sulfate (DLATGS) pyroelectric detector is used to sample the interferogram every two seconds. Redundant ∼0.855 μm laser diodes are used in a metrology interferometer to provide precise moving mirror control and IR sampling at 772 Hz. The beamsplitter is a 38-mm diameter, 1-mm thick chemical vapor deposited diamond with an antireflection microstructure to minimize surface reflection. An internal calibration cone blackbody target provides radiometric calibration. The radiometric precision in a single spectrum is
≤
2.2
×
10
−
8
W
cm
−
2
sr
−
1
/
cm
−
1
between 300 and
1350
cm
−
1
. The absolute integrated radiance error is
<
1
%
for scene temperatures ranging from 150 to 380 K. The overall OTES envelope size is
37.5
×
28.9
×
52.2
cm
, and the mass is 6.27 kg. The power consumption is 10.8 W average. OTES was developed by Arizona State University with Moog Broad Reach developing the electronics. OTES was integrated, tested, and radiometrically calibrated on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, AZ.
•Moral violations in naturalistic drama narratives predict cortical synchronization.•Intersubject correlations were strongest when immoral characters were punished.•Moral brain networks ...preferentially respond to vicarious moral sanctioning.•Individual variations in empathy map on to neural dynamics in drama processing.•Fans and non-fans of the stimulus drama process moral narratives similarly.
Punishment of moral norm violators is instrumental for human cooperation. Yet, social and affective neuroscience research has primarily focused on second- and third-party norm enforcement, neglecting the neural architecture underlying observed (vicarious) punishment of moral wrongdoers. We used naturalistic television drama as a sampling space for observing outcomes of morally-relevant behaviors to assess how individuals cognitively process dynamically evolving moral actions and their consequences. Drawing on Affective Disposition Theory, we derived hypotheses linking character morality with viewers’ neural processing of characters’ rewards and punishments. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses of 28 female participants while free-viewing 15 short story summary video clips of episodes from a popular US television soap opera. Each summary included a complete narrative structure, fully crossing main character behaviors (moral/immoral) and the consequences (reward/punishment) characters faced for their actions. Narrative engagement was examined via intersubject correlation and representational similarity analysis. Highest cortical synchronization in 9 specifically selected regions previously implicated in processing moral information was observed when characters who act immorally are punished for their actions with participants’ empathy as an important moderator. The results advance our understanding of the moral brain and the role of normative considerations and character outcomes in viewers’ engagement with popular narratives.
Land modified for human use alters matrix shape and composition and is a leading contributor to global biodiversity loss. It can also play a key role in facilitating range expansion and ecosystem ...invasion by anthrophilic species, as it can alter food abundance and distribution while also influencing predation risk; the relative roles of these processes are key to habitat selection theory. We researched these relative influences by examining human footprint, natural habitat, and predator occurrence on seasonal habitat selection by range-expanding boreal white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the oil sands of western Canada. We hypothesized that polygonal industrial features (e.g. cutblocks, well sites) drive deer distributions as sources of early seral forage, while linear features (e.g. roads, trails, and seismic lines) and habitat associated with predators are avoided by deer. We developed seasonal 2nd -order resource selection models from three years of deer GPS-telemetry data, a camera-trap-based model of predator occurrence, and landscape spatial data to weigh evidence for six competing hypotheses. Deer habitat selection was best explained by the combination of polygonal and linear features, intact deciduous forest, and wolf (Canis lupus) occurrence. Deer strongly selected for linear features such as roads and trails, despite a potential increased risk of wolf encounters. Linear features may attract deer by providing high density forage opportunity in heavily exploited landscapes, facilitating expansion into the boreal north.
Translocation is essential to the anthrax toxin mechanism. Protective antigen (PA), the binding component of this AB toxin, forms an oligomeric pore that translocates lethal factor (LF) or edema ...factor, the active components of the toxin, into the cell. Structural details of the translocation process have remained elusive despite their biological importance. To overcome the technical challenges of studying translocation intermediates, we developed a method to immobilize, transition, and stabilize anthrax toxin to mimic important physiological steps in the intoxication process. Here, we report a cryoEM snapshot of PA
translocating the N-terminal domain of LF (LF
). The resulting 3.3 Å structure of the complex shows density of partially unfolded LF
near the canonical PA
binding site. Interestingly, we also observe density consistent with an α helix emerging from the 100 Å β barrel channel suggesting LF secondary structural elements begin to refold in the pore channel. We conclude the anthrax toxin β barrel aids in efficient folding of its enzymatic payload prior to channel exit. Our hypothesized refolding mechanism has broader implications for pore length of other protein translocating toxins.
Highlights • Different kainate receptor subunits confer distinct pharmacological properties. • In heteromeric receptors, agonist binding to either type of subunit can activate the channel. • ...Desensitization of GluK2/K5 heteromers requires occupancy of both subunits in a dimer.
Drugs that treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by antagonizing the M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (M3R) have had a significant effect on health, but can suffer from their lack of ...selectivity against the M2R subtype, which modulates heart rate. Beginning with the crystal structures of M2R and M3R, we exploited a single amino acid difference in their orthosteric binding pockets using molecular docking and structure-based design. The resulting M3R antagonists had up to 100-fold selectivity over M2R in affinity and over 1,000-fold selectivity in vivo. The crystal structure of the M3R-selective antagonist in complex with M3R corresponded closely to the docking-predicted geometry, providing a template for further optimization.
Geothermal heat flux (GHF) is an important part of the basal heat budget of continental ice sheets. The difficulty of measuring GHF below ice sheets has directly hindered progress in the ...understanding of ice sheet dynamics. We present a new GHF measurement from below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, made in subglacial sediment near the grounding zone of the Whillans Ice Stream. The measured GHF is 88 ± 7 mW m−2, a relatively high value compared to other continental settings and to other GHF measurements along the eastern Ross Sea of 55 mW m−2 and 69 ± 21 mW m−2 but within the range of regional values indicated by geophysical estimates. The new GHF measurement was made ~100 km from the only other direct GHF measurement below the ice sheet, which was considerably higher at 285 ± 80 mW m−2, suggesting spatial variability that could be explained by shallow magmatic intrusions or the advection of heat by crustal fluids. Analytical calculations suggest that spatial variability in GHF exceeds spatial variability in the conductive heat flux through ice along the Siple Coast. Accurate GHF measurements and high‐resolution GHF models may be necessary to reliably predict ice sheet evolution, including responses to ongoing and future climate change.
Key Points
Measured geothermal flux at the grounding zone of the Whillans Ice Stream is 88 ± 7 mW m−2, higher than the average continental flux
West Antarctica exhibits high spatial variability in geothermal flux, consistent with local magmatic intrusions or crustal fluid advection
Spatial variability in geothermal flux exceeds spatial variability in the conductive heat flux through ice along the Siple Coast
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