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The rapidly emerging field of macrogenetics focuses on analysing publicly accessible genetic datasets from thousands of species to explore large-scale patterns and predictors of intraspecific genetic variation. Facilitated by advances in evolutionary biology, technology, data infrastructure, statistics and open science, macrogenetics addresses core evolutionary hypotheses (such as disentangling environmental and life-history effects on genetic variation) with a global focus. Yet, there are important, often overlooked, limitations to this approach and best practices need to be considered and adopted if macrogenetics is to continue its exciting trajectory and reach its full potential in fields such as biodiversity monitoring and conservation. Here, we review the history of this rapidly growing field, highlight knowledge gaps and future directions, and provide guidelines for further research.Leigh and colleagues describe the potential of the emerging field of macrogenetics to improve conservation and biodiversity management. Challenges preventing the field from reaching its full promise are highlighted and possible solutions and a framework for future macrogenetic studies are proposed.

\"Animals, Animality, and Literature offers readers a one-volume survey of literary animal studies in both its theoretical and applied dimensions. Focusing on English literary history, with scrupulous attention to the interplay between English and foreign influences, this collection gathers together the work of nineteen internationally-noted specialists in this growing discipline. Offering discussion of English literary works from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf and beyond, this book explores to the ways human/animal difference has been historically activated within the literary context: in devotional works, in philosophical and zoological treatises, in plays and poems and novels, and more recently within emerging narrative genres such as cinema and animation. With an introductory overview of the historical development of animal studies and afterword looking to the field's future possibilities, Animals, Animality, and Literature provides a wide-ranging survey of where this discipline currently stands\" -- Provided by publisher.

The intent of this book is to provide a rich and broad view of the impact of argument-based inquiry in classrooms from the perspective of the teacher. There are two important reasons for such a book. The first is that we as researchers constantly work to present our views of these experiences with the voice of the teachers only being relayed through the perspective of the researcher. We need as a community to listen to what the teachers are telling us. The second reason is that as demands grow to provide opportunities for students to pose questions, make claims, and provide evidence, that is, to think critically and reason like scientists, we need to understand what this looks like from the perspective of the teacher. This book brings together a range of teachers from several countries who have used the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach to teach argument-based inquiry. These teachers have all gone through professional development programs and successfully implemented the approach at a high level.

New computational methods and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) approaches have enabled the use of thousands or hundreds of thousands of genetic markers to address previously intractable questions. The methods and massive marker sets present both new data analysis challenges and opportunities to visualize, understand, and apply population and conservation genomic data in novel ways. The large scale and complexity of NGS data also increases the expertise and effort required to thoroughly and thoughtfully analyze and interpret data. To aid in this endeavor, a recent workshop entitled “Population Genomic Data Analysis,” also known as “ConGen 2017,” was held at the University of Montana. The ConGen workshop brought 15 instructors together with knowledge in a wide range of topics including NGS data filtering, genome assembly, genomic monitoring of effective population size, migration modeling, detecting adaptive genomic variation, genomewide association analysis, inbreeding depression, and landscape genomics. Here, we summarize the major themes of the workshop and the important take‐home points that were offered to students throughout. We emphasize increasing participation by women in population and conservation genomics as a vital step for the advancement of science. Some important themes that emerged during the workshop included the need for data visualization and its importance in finding problematic data, the effects of data filtering choices on downstream population genomic analyses, the increasing availability of whole‐genome sequencing, and the new challenges it presents. Our goal here is to help motivate and educate a worldwide audience to improve population genomic data analysis and interpretation, and thereby advance the contribution of genomics to molecular ecology, evolutionary biology, and especially to the conservation of biodiversity.

Riverscapes are complex, landscape-scale mosaics of connected river and stream habitats embedded in diverse ecological and socioeconomic settings. Social–ecological interactions among stakeholders often complicate natural-resource conservation and management of riverscapes. The management challenges posed by the conservation and restoration of wild salmonid populations in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) of western North America are one such example. Because of their ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic importance, salmonids present a complex management landscape due to interacting environmental factors (eg climate change, invasive species) as well as socioeconomic and political factors (eg dams, hatcheries, land-use change, transboundary agreements). Many of the problems in the CRB can be linked to social–ecological interactions occurring within integrated ecological, human–social, and regional–climatic spheres. Future management and conservation of salmonid populations therefore depends on how well the issues are understood and whether they can be resolved through effective communication and collaboration among ecologists, social scientists, stakeholders, and policy makers.

Gravel-bed river floodplains occur in river corridors around the globe. One key habitat of these floodplains are alluvial aquifers that provide habitat for a wide range of obligate groundwater species. Multiple species of the amphipod genus Stygobromus commonly occur in alluvial aquifers, as well as in karstic phreatic systems, but few studies have investigated the population structure and its relevance to the biogeography of the genus. Using reduced representation genome sequencing, RAD-seq, we investigated the population structure and genetic connectivity of an undescribed Stygobromus species in several alluvial aquifers on floodplains of the Flathead River, Montana (USA). Amphipods were genetically similar (pairwise FST ranging from 0.0061 to 0.0092) at multiple sites within floodplains but three genetic clusters were segregated among floodplains (pairwise FST ranging from 0.0303 to 0.0547), suggesting some geographic isolation of populations. These floodplain aquifers are separated by bedrock canyons that could be migration barriers resulting in the observed spatial segregation of populations.

Climate-change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) are valuable tools for assessing species' vulnerability to climatic changes, yet failure to include measures of adaptive capacity and to account for sources of uncertainty may limit their effectiveness. We took a more comprehensive approach that incorporates exposure, sensitivity, and capacity to adapt to climate change. We applied our approach to anadromous steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and nonanadromous bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), threatened salmonids within the Columbia River Basin (U.S.A.). We quantified exposure on the basis of scenarios of future stream temperature and flow, and we represented sensitivity and capacity to adapt to climate Change with metrics of habitat quality, demographic condition, and genetic diversity. Both species were found to be highly vulnerable to climate change at low elevations and in their southernmost habitats. However, vulnerability rankings varied widely depending on the factors (climate, habitat, demographic, and genetic) included in the CCVA and often differed for the 2 species at locations where they were sympatric. Our findings illustrate that CCVA results are highly sensitive to data inputs and that spatial differences can complicate multispecies conservation. Based on our results, we suggest that CCVAs be considered within a broader conceptual and computational framework and be used to refine hypotheses, guide research, and compare plausible scenarios of species' vulnerability to climate change. Las evaluaciones de vulnerabilidad al cambio climático (EVCC) son herramientas valiosas para evaluar la vulnerabilidad de especies al cambio climático, aunque su efectividad puede ser limitada por no incluir medidas de la capacidad adaptativa ni considerar las fuentes de incertidumbre. Desarrollamos un método más integral que incorpora la exposición, sensibilidad y capacidad de adaptación al cambio climático. Aplicamos nuestro método en Oncorhynchus mykiss (trucha anódroma) y en Salvelinus confluentus (trucha no anódroma), salmónidos amenazados en la cuenca del Río Columbia (E.U.A.). Cuantificamos la exposición con base en escenarios futuros de temperatura y flujo, y representamos la sensibilidad y capacidad de adaptación al cambio climático con medidas de la calidad del hábitat, condición demográfica y diversidad genética. Se encontró que ambas especies son altamente vulnerables al cambio climático en elevaciones bajas y en sus hábitats más sureños. Sin embargo, la vulnerabilidad varió ampliamente dependiendo de los factores (clima, hábitat, demográficos y genéticos) incluidos en la EVCC y a menudo difirieron para las dos especies en localidades donde eran simpátricos. Nuestros hallazgos ilustran que los resultados de las EVCC son altamente sensibles al insumo de datos y que las diferencias espaciales pueden complicar la conservación de especies múltiples. Con base en nuestros resultados, sugerimos que las EVCC sean consideradas en un marco conceptual y computacional más amplio y que sean utilizadas para refinar hipótesis, desarrollar investigación y comparar escenarios factibles de la vulnerabilidad de especies al cambio climático.

Alluvial aquifers are key components of river floodplains and biodiversity worldwide, but they contain extreme environmental conditions and have limited sources of carbon for sustaining food webs. Despite this, they support abundant populations of aquifer stoneflies that have large proportions of their biomass carbon derived from methane. Methane is typically produced in freshwater ecosystems in anoxic conditions, while stoneflies (Order: Plecoptera) are thought to require highly oxygenated water. The potential importance of methane-derived food resources raises the possibility that stonefly consumers have evolved anoxia-resistant behaviors and physiologies. Here we tested the anoxic and hypoxic responses of 2,445 stonefly individuals in three aquifer species and nine benthic species. We conducted experimental trials in which we reduced oxygen levels, documented locomotor activity, and measured survival rates. Compared to surface-dwelling benthic relatives, stoneflies from the alluvial aquifer on the Flathead River (Montana) performed better in hypoxic and anoxic conditions. Aquifer species sustained the ability to walk after 4–76 h of anoxia vs. 1 h for benthic species and survived on average three times longer than their benthic counterparts. Aquifer stoneflies also sustained aerobic respiration down to much lower levels of ambient oxygen. We show that aquifer taxa have gene sequences for hemocyanin, an oxygen transport respiratory protein, representing a possible mechanism for surviving low oxygen. This remarkable ability to perform well in low-oxygen conditions is unique within the entire order of stoneflies (Plecoptera) and uncommon in other freshwater invertebrates. These results show that aquifer stoneflies can exploit rich carbon resources available in anoxic zones, which may explain their extraordinarily high abundance in gravel-bed floodplain aquifers. These stoneflies are part of a novel food web contributing biodiversity to river floodplains.