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Subsistence hunting, or “country food,” on traditional territories is essential for numerous Indigenous Peoples who face food insecurity. For many First Nations of Canada, subsistence hunting is also inextricably linked to traditional conservation practices, as hunting is an important way of engaging with nature. In Canada's boreal forest, large game such as moose (Alces alces) is a primary source of protein. However, resource extraction—including forestry and oil and gas—has shifted large game distributions and affected the availability and abundance of food resources. Here, the Indigenous authors designed the study and processed remote camera trap data, then sought out Western scientists to generate generalized linear models to evaluate moose habitat use and spatial‐numerical responses to possible stressors in north‐central Alberta, including fire, harvest, oil and gas extraction, and other disturbances. Together, through the coproduction of knowledge, we examined the effects of human‐caused stressors on moose habitat use by sex and age class. The proportion of various land cover types and human land use for resource extraction was important in moose habitat use. Notably, male, female, and young moose all used habitat differently and at different spatial scales. However, young moose (with their mothers) strongly selected natural forest disturbances such as burned areas but avoided human‐created disturbances such as petroleum exploration “seismic” lines. Female moose with young attempts to maximize forage opportunities do not use human‐disturbed forests in the same ways they use naturally disturbed areas. Our findings, in the context of Indigenous interpretation from remote cameras and community insights, have linked human disturbance to declines in moose densities and displacement from traditional hunting grounds. Evaluating and predicting shifts in large game distributions is critical to supporting Indigenous food security and sovereignty and identifying where industries operating on First Nations lands can better engage responsibly with First Nations. Subsistence hunting, or “country food,” is essential for Indigenous peoples who face high food insecurity and is critical for Indigenous Food Sovereignty. In the boreal of Canada, large game such as moose (Alces alces) are a primary source of protein for many First Nations, but resource extraction, including forestry practices and oil and gas extraction, has shifted large game distributions. We found that female moose with young do not use human‐disturbed forests in the same ways they use naturally disturbed areas, which aligns with observations from Indigenous communities and links human disturbance to declines in moose densities and displacement from traditional hunting grounds.

Aim On‐the‐ground conservation efforts require managers to balance various and sometimes conflicting conservation goals. For instance, areas important for conserving threatened and endangered species may have little spatial agreement with high functional redundancy. Using prioritisation tools can further complicate conservation prioritisations if conflicting diversity metrics identify different high‐priority areas. We compared five community‐level diversity metrics for birds across the conterminous US to identify how much agreement existed between each before and after using a prioritisation framework. Location Contiguous US. Methods We examined spatial agreement among metrics before (a priori) and after (a posteriori) prioritisation using integer linear programming. We compared a posteriori outputs for 10% and 30% conservation goals. We also assessed data layer correlation and agreement (i.e., overlap) a priori and a posteriori. Results As expected, the a priori diversity metrics were poorly to moderately correlated (median = 0.31, range = 0.11–0.71), but all a posteriori solutions had areas of agreement. Accordingly, our a posteriori metrics identified different areas as high priority for conservation, none aligning well with the current protected areas (mean = 13%–15% agreement). However, the a posteriori approach allowed us to include a continuity constraint (identify adjacent important pixels) and easily find areas of high‐priority agreement. Main Conclusions Metric agreement depended on a priori or a posteriori evaluation, highlighting managers' challenges when deciding where and how to enact conservation. Given these challenges, a posteriori solutions best support multiple‐objective, complex and large planning conservation problems. Importantly, all of our a posteriori maps agreed in areas, suggesting aggregates of several metrics could instill certainty in decision‐making if prioritisation solutions were obtained at different times. Overall, our results underscore the critical importance of generating maps and metrics useful for on‐the‐ground management, carefully selecting biodiversity metrics that best reflect conservation goals and employing prioritisation software for generating conservation solutions.

Human activities alter ecosystems everywhere, causing rapid biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization. These losses necessitate coordinated conservation actions guided by biodiversity and species distribution spatial data that cover large areas yet have fine-enough resolution to be management-relevant (i.e., ≤5 km). However, most biodiversity products are too coarse for management or are only available for small areas. Furthermore, many maps generated for biodiversity assessment and conservation do not explicitly quantify the inherent tradeoff between resolution and accuracy when predicting biodiversity patterns. Our goals were to generate predictive models of overall breeding bird species richness and species richness of different guilds based on nine functional or life-history-based traits across the conterminous United States at three resolutions (0.5, 2.5, and 5 km) and quantify the tradeoff between resolution and accuracy and, hence, relevance for management of the resulting biodiversity maps. We summarized 18 years of North American Breeding Bird Survey data (1992–2019) and modeled species richness using random forests, including 66 predictor variables (describing climate, vegetation, geomorphology, and anthropogenic conditions), 20 of which we newly derived. Among the three spatial resolutions, the percentage variance explained ranged from 27% to 60% (median = 54%; mean = 57%) for overall species richness and 12% to 87% (median = 61%; mean = 58%) for our different guilds. Overall species richness and guild-specific species richness were best explained at 5-km resolution using ~24 predictor variables based on percentage variance explained, symmetric mean absolute percentage error, and root mean square error values. However, our 2.5-km-resolution maps were almost as accurate and provided more spatially detailed information, which is why we recommend them for most management applications. Our results represent the first consistent, occurrence-based, and nationwide maps of breeding bird richness with a thorough accuracy assessment that are also spatially detailed enough to inform local management decisions. More broadly, our findings highlight the importance of explicitly considering tradeoffs between resolution and accuracy to create management-relevant biodiversity products for large areas.

In the conterminous United States, wolverines (Gulo gulo) occupy semi-isolated patches of subalpine habitats at naturally low densities. Determining how to model wolverine habitat, particularly across multiple scales, can contribute greatly to wolverine conservation efforts. We used the machine-learning algorithm random forest to determine how a novel analysis approach compared to the existing literature for future wolverine conservation efforts. We also determined how well a small suite of variables explained wolverine habitat use patterns at the second- and third-order selection scale by sex. We found that the importance of habitat covariates differed slightly by sex and selection scales. Snow water equivalent, distance to high-elevation talus, and latitude-adjusted elevation were the driving selective forces for wolverines across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem at both selection orders but performed better at the second order. Overall, our results indicate that wolverine habitat selection is, in large part, broadly explained by high-elevation structural features, and this confirms existing data. Our results suggest that for third-order analyses, additional fine-scale habitat data are necessary.

While the publishing landscape has drastically changed in recent decades, publishing productivity metrics (e.g., citation scores) and support for early-career researchers (ECRs) have not kept pace. ECRs are individuals currently in school, up to 8 years post final degree, or on the job market, and being an ECR is inherently characterized by transitions that coincide with potential career instability and pressure to find a permanent job. The global pandemic years exacerbated the publishing challenges ECRs faced, from reviewer scarcity to publishing equity gaps across gender and race. We sought to evaluate ECR attitudes towards publishing, reviewing, and open access (OA), as well as identify common barriers ECRs encountered in the current publishing system. We solicited ECR perspectives by distributing a survey to ECRs from September to October of 2023, resulting in 162 self-identified ECRs in ecology, including students (38%), postdoctoral scholars (29%), those in permanent positions (31%; e.g., faculty, state, and federal government), or working outside ecology altogether (2%). Over-whelmingly, cost, reviewer compensation, time constraints, and insufficient mentorship were the major barriers identified by ECRs. We suggest that institutions, journal publishers, mid- and late-career ecologists, and professional societies adopt focused strategies to support ECRs through more diverse and inclusive financial support for publishing, broader metrics to measure scientific productivity beyond traditional citation-based metrics, additional means to compensate reviewers, and training and mentorship to students and postdoctoral researchers on reviewer expectations and etiquette. Several survey respondents also noted that the publishing system would be more equitable if all scientific journals transitioned to double-blind peer review. If scientific organizations, institutions, and publishers wish to promote a sustainable and diverse scientific publishing system in the future, they need to focus on the needs and challenges of early-career researchers.

Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution that leads to adaptations in species or populations. Phenotypes confer habitat-specific fitness consequences, which could lead to the evolution of similar strategies (convergence) or different strategies (divergence) within and across species. The evolution of communication is an example of convergent evolution in many cases. We describe a learning game that simulates the emergence of language and highlights differences between convergent and divergent evolution. With minor modifications, this game can also be used to illustrate phenotypic plasticity. During three preliminary trials, high school and university students representing different species developed novel strategies (languages) to solve the common problem of finding “Garrett,” a student who mimicked an essential resource. Naturally, there was a range of complexity and diversity among the strategies that emerged. We describe how the game can help illustrate evolutionary principles such as adaptation and natural selection.

Genital herpes is a common and painful infection. Its prevalence within the United States is estimated to be 40 million to 60 million people. Three medications, acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir, have been shown to reduce the duration and severity of the disease. The authors report on the first known case of valacyclovir-induced psychosis with symptoms of mania in a young woman with no previous psychiatric history. The patient presented with irritable mood and grandiose delusions 72 hours after starting valacyclovir for genital herpes. Valacyclovir treatment was stopped, and risperidone was initiated. The symptoms continued after stopping the valacyclovir, but improved with risperidone. There are reports of neuropsychiatric side effects with valacyclovir's structural analogs in elderly patients with renal dysfunction. Clinicians should be aware that valacyclovir may induce psychosis with manic presentation in young, healthy patients without a psychiatric history.

The role played by remuneration strategies in motivating health care professionals is one of the most studied factors. Some studies of nursing home (NH) services, while considering wages and labor market characteristics, do not explicitly account for the influence of the contract itself. This study investigates the relationship between the labor contracts applied in 62 Tuscan NHs and NH aides' job satisfaction with two aims: to investigate the impact of European contracts on employee satisfaction in health care services and to determine possible limitations of research not incorporating these contracts. We apply a multilevel model to data gathered from a staff survey administered in 2014 to all employees of 62 NHs to analyze two levels: individual and NH. Labor contracts were introduced into the model as a variable of NH. Findings show that the factors influencing nursing aides' satisfaction occur at both the individual and NH levels. Organizational characteristics explain 16% of the variation. For individual characteristics, foreign and temporary workers emerge as more satisfied than others. For NH variables, results indicate that the labor contract with the worst conditions is not associated with lower workers' satisfaction. Although working conditions play a relevant role in the job satisfaction of aides, labor contracts do not seem to affect it. Interestingly, aides of the NHs with the contract having the best conditions register a significantly lower level of satisfaction compared to the NHs with the worst contract conditions. This suggests that organizational factors such as culture, team work, and other characteristics, which were not explicitly considered in this study, may be more powerful sources of worker satisfaction than labor contracts. Our analysis has value as a management tool to consider alternative sources as well as the labor contract for employee incentives.