The effects of an extreme climatic event on shrub species were assessed by analyzing their leaves, roots, seeds and stem.The long-term monitoring of scrub communities allowed to evidence the effects of this extreme event by monitoring the permanent network of plots sampled annually and the remote sensing images. The results showed, first, that not all scrub species respond in a similar way showing a wide gradient of affection. Secondly, these differences are clearly in relation to the various...

Identification of the genomic regions under selection during dog domestication is extremely challenging because the demographic fluctuations associated with domestication can produce signals in polymorphism data that mimic those imposed by selective sweeps. Here it is performed the first analysis of selection on the dog lineage that explicitly incorporates a demographic model, that by controlling for the rate of false discovery, more robustly identifies targets of selection.

Understanding the processes driving seabirds' reproductive performance through trophic interactions requires the identification of seasonal pulses in marine productivity. In this study, it was investigated the sequence of environmental and biological processes driving the reproductive phenology and performance of the storm petrel in the Western Mediterranean.

Do parasites weaken their hosts’ resilience to environmental stress? Not always, according to this study. Rather than weakening its brine shrimp intermediate host, tapeworm infection enhances the shrimps’ ability to cope with arsenic contamination in the water, and the same holds true in the warmer waters predicted by climate change models.

When confronted with a predator, many mammalian species emit vocalizations known as alarm calls. Vocal structure variation results from the interactive effects of different selective pressures. Body size is an important morphological constraint influencing the lowest frequencies that an organism can produce. The acoustic environment influences signal degradation. Such hypotheses have been mainly examined in birds, whereas the proximate and ultimate factors affecting vocalizations in...