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In tropical rainforests environmental conditions vary dramatically from the ground to the canopy, resulting in a marked stratification in the way vertical space is used by organisms, but research work is often limited to the understorey layer. Aerial insectivorous bats are a highly diverse group that plays key roles in the ecology of rainforests, but their use of vertical space remains elusive. Using automatic ultrasound recording stations placed in the canopy, subcanopy and understorey we tested if bat activity and species diversity are vertically stratified, both in the forest interior and near the edges of water bodies. These patterns were tested separately for individual species, and for two functional groups – open space and edge space bats. Insectivorous bat activity increased by roughly seven fold, and species diversity doubled, from the understorey to the canopy. Both edge space and open space bats were more active in the upper strata, but this tendency was much more accentuated in the latter. Myotis riparius was the only species with greater activity near the understorey. These patterns were altered at the edges of water bodies, where vertical stratification was much less marked. The observed patterns are parsimoniously explained by constraints imposed by vegetation clutter that change across strata, which affect bat species differently. Only bats better adapted to closed spaces are usually capable of foraging within the understorey, whereas the majority of species can exploit the free spaces immediately below the canopy; open space bats seem to concentrate their activity above the canopy. This importance of the inter strata open spaces for bat foraging highlights the need to preserve pristine stratified rainforests, as even selective logging usually disrupts vertical stratification. Moreover, the concentration of insectivorous bats at the upper strata of rainforests underlines the need to include canopy level sampling in ecological studies.

Recent studies suggest that roads can significantly impact bat populations. Though bats are one of the most threatened groups of European vertebrates, studies aiming to quantify bat mortality and determine the main factors driving it remain scarce. Between March 16 and October 31 of 2009, we surveyed road-killed bats daily along a 51-km-long transect that incorporates different types of roads in southern Portugal. We found 154 road-killed bats of 11 species. The two most common species in the study area, Pipistrellus kuhlii and P. pygmaeus , were also the most commonly identified road-kill, representing 72 % of the total specimens collected. About two-thirds of the total mortality occurred between mid July and late September, peaking in the second half of August. We also recorded casualties of threatened and rare species, including Miniopterus schreibersii , Rhinolophus ferrumequinum , R. hipposideros , Barbastella barbastellus , and Nyctalus leisleri . These species were found mostly in early autumn, corresponding to the mating and swarming periods. Landscape features were the most important variable subset for explaining bat casualties. Road stretches crossing or in the vicinity of high-quality habitats for bats—including dense Mediterranean woodland (“montado”) areas, water courses with riparian gallery, and water reservoirs—yielded a significantly higher number of casualties. Additionally, more road-killed bats were recorded on high-traffic road stretches with viaducts, in areas of higher bat activity and near known roosts.

Ponds are crucial habitats for bats in Mediterranean regions, providing significant sources of food and drinking water. However, the intensification of land use and the increase in arid landscapes are threatening these ecosystems, leading to a significant decline in water availability. Our aim is to assess the influence of biotic and abiotic pond features on bat communities, with a focus on the hydrological regime (artificial permanent or natural Mediterranean temporary ponds), and including prey-availability, wind speed and surrounding land use type. We surveyed bat and feeding activity and species richness in 32 ponds – 16 permanent and 16 Mediterranean temporary — along the southwestern coast of Portugal during two consecutive spring seasons. In total, we recorded 3802 bat passes in permanent ponds and 984 in temporary ponds. Both bat activity and species richness were significantly higher in permanent ponds, which also hosted a greater number of species of conservation concern: Myotis myotis/M. blythii , M. escalerai, and Nyctalus lasiopterus/N. noctula . Our results revealed that pond hydrological regime influenced species richness, whereas variation in bat activity was mainly explained by other factors. We found a strong and positive effect of the availability of Diptera insects and the proportion of urban areas on bat overall and feeding activity and species richness. In contrast, wind speed, even low, exhibited a clear negative influence on bat overall and feeding activity, with weaker influence on species richness. This study highlights the key role of permanent ponds in the Mediterranean region for bat conservation, but also demonstrates the importance of maintaining ponds with different flooding periods, as these increase water availability, landscape heterogeneity and connectivity.

We examined seasonal patterns of spatial variation in understory bird assemblages across a mosaic of upland and floodplain forests in central Amazonia, where variation in flooding patterns and floodwater nutrient load shapes a marked spatial heterogeneity in forest structure and composition. Despite great differences in productivity due to flooding by either nutrient-rich “white waters” (várzea) or nutrient-poor “black waters” (igapó), bird assemblages in the two floodplain forest types were relatively similar, showing lower abundances than adjacent upland forests (terra firme) and sharing a set of species that were absent or scarce elsewhere. Species that breed in pensile nests overhanging water were abundant in floodplain forests, whereas species that feed on the ground were generally scarce. Flooding affected assemblage dynamics in floodplain forests, with some influx of ground-dwelling species such as ant-following birds from adjacent upland during the low-water season, and the occupation by riverine and aquatic species such as kingfishers during floods. Spatial configuration influenced the seasonal pattern of assemblage structuring, with movements from terra firme occurring primarily to adjacent igapó forests. No such influx was detected in várzea forests that were farther from terra firme and isolated by wide river channels. Results support the view that habitat heterogeneity created by flooding strongly contributes to maintain diverse vertebrate assemblages in Amazonia forest landscapes, even in the case of largely sedentary species such as understory forest birds. Including both upland and floodplain forests in Amazonia reserves may thus be essential to preserve bird diversity at the landscape scale.

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ∼26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications.

We thank the Brazilian CNPq and Ministério do Meio Ambiente for research permits. João Valsecchi, Helder Queiróz, Miriam Marmontel, Pedro Santos, Jerry Tavares dos Santos, several field assistants, and the staff of the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá provided invaluable help with planning, logistics and field work. We also thank L. Reino, C. Miranda and N. Castanheira for help during field work. We are grateful to the communities of ASDR for their hospitality. Monique MacKenzie kindly helped with the GEE analyses. Dr. Mark Brigham made valuable comments and suggestions that helped to improve an earlier version of the manuscript.

During the past two decades, tissue engineering and the regenerative medicine field have invested in the regeneration and reconstruction of pathologically altered tissues, such as cartilage, bone, skin, heart valves, nerves and tendons, and many others. The 3D structured scaffolds and hydrogels alone or combined with bioactive molecules or genes and cells are able to guide the development of functional engineered tissues, and provide mechanical support during in vivo implantation. Naturally derived and synthetic polymers, bioresorbable inorganic materials, and respective hybrids, and decellularized tissue have been considered as scaffolding biomaterials, owing to their boosted structural, mechanical, and biological properties. A diversity of biomaterials, current treatment strategies, and emergent technologies used for 3D scaffolds and hydrogel processing, and the tissue-specific considerations for scaffolding for Tissue engineering (TE) purposes are herein highlighted and discussed in depth. The newest procedures focusing on the 3D behavior and multi-cellular interactions of native tissues for further use for in vitro model processing are also outlined. Completed and ongoing preclinical research trials for TE applications using scaffolds and hydrogels, challenges, and future prospects of research in the regenerative medicine field are also presented.

The evolution of dryland pasture quality is closely related to the seasonal and inter-annual variability characteristic of the Mediterranean climate. This variability introduces great unpredictability in the dynamic management of animal grazing. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of two complementary tools (satellite images, Sentinel-2 and proximal optical sensor, OptRx) for the calculation of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), to monitor in a timely manner indicators of pasture quality (moisture content, crude protein, and neutral detergent fiber). In two consecutive years (2018/2019 and 2019/2020) these tools were evaluated in six fields representative of dryland pastures in the Alentejo region, in Portugal. The results show a significant correlation between pasture quality degradation index (PQDI) and NDVI measured by remote sensing (R2 = 0.82) and measured by proximal optical sensor (R2 = 0.83). These technological tools can potentially make an important contribution to decision making and to the management of livestock production. The complementarity of these two approaches makes it possible to overcome the limitations of satellite images that result (i) from the interference of clouds (which occurs frequently throughout the pasture vegetative cycle) and (ii) from the interference of tree canopy, an important layer of the Montado ecosystem. This work opens perspectives to explore new solutions in the field of Precision Agriculture technologies based on spectral reflectance to respond to the challenges of economic and environmental sustainability of extensive livestock production systems.

The lung is a complex ecosystem of host cells and microbes often disrupted in pathological conditions. Although bacteria have been hypothesized as agents of carcinogenesis, little is known about microbiota profile of the most prevalent cancer subtypes: adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). To characterize lung cancer (LC) microbiota a first a screening was performed through a pooled sequencing approach of 16S ribosomal RNA gene (V3-V6) using a total of 103 bronchoalveaolar lavage fluid samples. Then, identified taxa were used to inspect 1009 cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas and to annotate tumor unmapped RNAseq reads. Microbial diversity was analyzed per cancer subtype, history of cigarette smoking and airflow obstruction, among other clinical data. We show that LC microbiota is enriched in Proteobacteria and more diverse in SCC than ADC, particularly in males and heavier smokers. High frequencies of Proteobacteria were found to discriminate a major cluster, further subdivided into well-defined communities’ associated with either ADC or SCC. Here, a SCC subcluster differing from other cases by a worse survival was correlated with several Enterobacteriaceae. Overall, this study provides first evidence for a correlation between lung microbiota and cancer subtype and for its influence on patient life expectancy.

The automotive and aerospace industries increasingly rely on lightweight, high-strength materials to improve fuel efficiency, making the joining of dissimilar metals such as aluminum and steel both beneficial and essential. However, a major challenge in these joints is the formation of brittle intermetallic compounds (IMCs) at the interface, even when using low heat-input solid-state welding methods like friction stir welding (FSW). Furthermore, IMC growth at elevated temperatures significantly limits the service life of these joints. In this study, an intermediate layer of stainless steel was deposited on the steel surface prior to FSW with aluminum. The resulting Al–Steel joints were subjected to heat treatment at 400 °C and 550 °C to investigate IMC growth and its impact on mechanical strength, with results compared to conventional joints without the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer significantly suppressed IMC formation, leading to a smaller reduction in mechanical strength after heat treatment. Joints with the intermediate layer achieved their highest strength (350 MPa) after heat treatment at 400 °C, while conventional joints exhibited their highest strength (225 MPa) in the as-welded condition. At 550 °C, both joint types experienced a decline in strength; however, the joint with the intermediate layer retained a strength of 100 MPa, whereas the conventional joint lost its strength entirely. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the role of IMC growth in joint strength and demonstrates how the intermediate layer enhances the thermal durability and mechanical performance of Al–Steel joints, offering valuable insights for their application in high-temperature environments.