Ana Paula Aprígio Assis

Trait variation is essential for population-level responses to novel selective pressures. Because beak morphology is a trait crucial for tasks directly influencing fitness, such as resource acquisition, we hypothesize that species with greater intraspecific variation in beak morphology may access a broader range of food resources, promoting an expanded dietary niche and potentially reducing extinction risk. Hawaiian honeycreepers, once comprising about 60 species, have suffered a high rate of extinction, with less than 35% of species persisting today. We quantified beak morphological variation of extinct and extant Hawaiian honeycreepers collected between 1880 and 1913 and estimated species’ niche breadth from stable isotope ratios. While a direct link between morphology and diet variation was not evident at the community level, our analysis revealed that, within guilds, species with lower morphological variation also exhibited narrower isotopic niches. Moreover, extinct species had less morphological variation than those extant, suggesting a link between adaptive potential and extinction vulnerability. Our study highlights the value of historical datasets and museum collections, not only for understanding past ecological patterns but also for providing critical baselines to compare with extant species, allowing us to better interpret present-day biodiversity and extinction risk through the lens of the past.

Ecological interactions shape the evolution of multiple species traits in populations. These traits are often linked to each other through genetic correlations, affecting how each trait evolves through selection imposed by interacting partners. Here, we integrate quantitative genetics, coevolutionary theory and network science to explore how trait correlations affect the coevolution of mutualistic species not only in pairs of species but also in species‐rich networks across space. We show that genetic correlations may determine the pace of coevolutionary change, affect species abundances and fuel divergence among populations of the same species. However, this trait divergence promoted by genetic correlations is partially buffered by the nested structure of species‐rich mutualisms. Our study, therefore, highlights how coevolution and its ecological consequences may result from conflicting processes at different levels of organisation, ranging from genes to communities.

Este é o primeiro relatório do Observatório COVID19 - Grupo: Redes de Contágio – Laboratório de Estudos de Defesa para a região Sul do Brasil. Combinamos dados de casos confirmados do novo coronavírus (SARS-CoV-2) para o Sul, disponíveis até o dia 17/04/2020, com análises estruturais da rede de rotas rodoviárias intra e interestaduais para estimarmos a vulnerabilidade e potencial influência das microrregiões sulinas na propagação da doença.

Studies in microbiology have long been mostly restricted to small spatial scales. However, recent technological advances, such as new sequencing methodologies, have ushered an era of large-scale sequencing of environmental DNA data from multiple biomes worldwide. These global datasets can now be used to explore long standing questions of microbial ecology. New methodological approaches and concepts are being developed to study such large-scale patterns in microbial communities, resulting in new perspectives that represent a significant advances for both microbiology and macroecology. Here, we identify and review important conceptual, computational, and methodological challenges and opportunities in microbial macroecology. Specifically, we discuss the challenges of handling and analyzing large amounts of microbiome data to understand taxa distribution and co-occurrence patterns. We also discuss approaches for modeling microbial communities based on environmental data, including information on biological interactions to make full use of available Big Data. Finally, we summarize the methods presented in a general approach aimed to aid microbiologists in addressing fundamental questions in microbial macroecology, including classical propositions (such as “everything is everywhere, but the environment selects”) as well as applied ecological problems, such as those posed by human induced global environmental changes.

Wildlife disease dynamics are strongly influenced by the structure of host communities and their symbiotic microbiota. Conspicuous amphibian declines associated with the waterborne fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) have been observed in aquatic-breeding frogs globally. However, less attention has been given to cryptic terrestrial-breeding amphibians that have also been declining in tropical regions. By experimentally manipulating multiple tropical amphibian assemblages harbouring natural microbial communities, we tested whether Bd spillover from naturally infected aquatic-breeding frogs could lead to Bd amplification and mortality in our focal terrestrial-breeding host: the pumpkin toadlet Brachycephalus pitanga . We also tested whether the strength of spillover could vary depending on skin bacterial transmission within host assemblages. Terrestrial-breeding toadlets acquired lethal spillover infections from neighbouring aquatic hosts and experienced dramatic but generally non-protective shifts in skin bacterial composition primarily attributable to their Bd infections. By contrast, aquatic-breeding amphibians maintained mild Bd infections and higher survival, with shifts in bacterial microbiomes that were unrelated to Bd infections. Our results indicate that Bd spillover from even mildly infected aquatic-breeding hosts may lead to dysbiosis and mortality in terrestrial-breeding species, underscoring the need to further investigate recent population declines of terrestrial-breeding amphibians in the tropics.

Esta investigación analizó el conocimiento de los profesionales de enfermería sobre las medidas de prevención de las Lesiones por Esfuerzo Repetitivo/Disturbio Osteomuscular Relacionado al Trabajo. Estudio de abordaje cualitativo y descriptivo, cuyos participantes fueron diez enfermeros de una Clínica Escuela de Enfermería. Recolecta de datos: entrevista semiestruturada. En el análisis emergieron dos categorías temáticas: Conocimientos sobre Lesiones por Esfuerzo Repetitivo/Disturbio Osteomuscular Relacionado al Trabajo; Medidas Preventivas sobre Lesiones por Esfuezo Repetitivo/Disturbio Osteomuscular Relacionado al Trabajo: contribuciones para enfermería. En los resultados fue posible vislumbrar que los entrevistados tienen conocimiento sobre el problema y sus formas de prevención. En lo que respecta a la prevención esta debe estar dirigida a cambios de postura en la ejecución de las actividades, mobiliarios, instrumentos y equipos adecuados al desempeño de las tareas y adopción de programas de entrenamiento. Conclusiones: los entrevistados mostraron conocimiento sobre esta problemática y sus formas de prevención; sin embargo, con la finalidad de profundizar es necesario educación continuada sobre la temática y adopción de programas de entrenamiento, con la finalidad de establecer estrategias para evitar el riesgo ocupacional y disminuir la probabilidad de enfermarse.

The family Phyllostomidae, which evolved in the New World during the last 30 million years, represents one of the largest and most morphologically diverse mammal families. Due to its uniquely diverse functional morphology, the phyllostomid skull is presumed to have evolved under strong directional selection; however, quantitative estimation of the strength of selection in this extraordinary lineage has not been reported. Here, we used comparative quantitative genetics approaches to elucidate the processes that drove cranial evolution in phyllostomids. We also quantified the strength of selection and explored its association with dietary transitions and specialization along the phyllostomid phylogeny. Our results suggest that natural selection was the evolutionary process responsible for cranial diversification in phyllostomid bats. Remarkably, the strongest selection in the phyllostomid phylogeny was associated with dietary specialization and the origination of novel feeding habits, suggesting that the adaptive diversification of phyllostomid bats was triggered by ecological opportunities. These findings are consistent with Simpson’s quantum evolutionary model of transitions between adaptive zones. The multivariate analyses used in this study provides a powerful tool for understanding the role of evolutionary processes in shaping phenotypic diversity in any group on both micro- and macroevolutionary scales.

The importance of the environment in shaping phenotypic evolution lies at the core of evolutionary biology. Chipmunks of the genus Tamias (subgenus Neotamias) are part of a very recent radiation, occupying a wide range of environments with marked niche partitioning among species. One open question is if and how those differences in environments affected phenotypic evolution in this lineage. Herein we examine the relative importance of genetic drift versus natural selection in the origin of cranial diversity exhibited by clade members. We also explore the degree to which variation in potential selective agents (environmental variables) are correlated with the patterns of morphological variation presented. We found that genetic drift cannot explain morphological diversification in the group, thus supporting the potential role of natural selection as the predominant evolutionary force during Neotamias cranial diversification, although the strength of selection varied greatly among species. This morphological diversification, in turn, was correlated with environmental conditions, suggesting a possible causal relationship. These results underscore that extant Neotamias represent a radiation in which aspects of the environment might have acted as the selective force driving species’ divergence. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Phenotypic (co)variation is a prerequisite for evolutionary change, and understanding how (co)variation evolves is of crucial importance to the biological sciences. Theoretical models predict that under directional selection, phenotypic (co)variation should evolve in step with the underlying adaptive landscape, increasing the degree of correlation among co-selected traits as well as the amount of genetic variance in the direction of selection. Whether either of these outcomes occurs in natural populations is an open question and thus an important gap in evolutionary theory. Here, we documented changes in the phenotypic (co)variation structure in two separate natural populations in each of two chipmunk species ( Tamias alpinus and T. speciosus ) undergoing directional selection. In populations where selection was strongest (those of T. alpinus ), we observed changes, at least for one population, in phenotypic (co)variation that matched theoretical expectations, namely an increase of both phenotypic integration and (co)variance in the direction of selection and a re-alignment of the major axis of variation with the selection gradient.