Fates Of Individuals Research Articles

Dispersing across habitat boundaries: Uncovering the demographic fates of populations in unsuitable habitat

AbstractPatchy landscapes are characterized by abrupt transitions between habitats, forcing species to cross habitat boundaries in order to spread. Although individuals that disperse into unsuitable habitat are often presumed dead in population models, reality may be more nuanced. If survival within an unsuitable habitat is possible (however transiently), then through time, individuals may be able to reach distant, suitable habitat. In this study, conducted with annual plant species in a fragmented Californian grassland, we examined the fate of habitat specialists moving between serpentine patches and an invaded nonserpentine matrix. First, we tested whether habitat specialists use seed dormancy to transiently survive beyond the habitat boundary. We found that dormancy maintained populations of patch specialists deep into the matrix—these patterns were not observed for matrix specialists in serpentine patches. Seeds of patch specialists that lacked morphologies for assisted dispersal accumulated downslope of patches, suggesting that even the most dispersal‐limited species could eventually reach suitable patches even if they first land in the matrix. Second, because an invasive matrix specialist (Avena fatua) is highly abundant, we were interested in determining whether seeds spilled into serpentine patches were strong enough to maintain sink populations. We found that A. fatua was largely absent deep in patches, where the components of fitness plummeted and there was no evidence of a dormant seedbank (in contrast to a sizable seedbank of patch specialists in the matrix). Our results suggest that the demographic fates of individuals that land in unsuitable habitat depend on the direction by which the boundary is crossed (patch ➝ matrix ≠ matrix ➝ patch), with different ecological consequences for species in each habitat type. Dormancy is often understood as a mechanism for persisting in the face of temporal variability but may serve as a means of traversing unsuitable habitat in patchy systems, warranting its consideration in estimates of habitat connectivity.

Changing priorities, shifting narratives: Remapping rural livelihoods in Africa's artisanal and small-scale mining sector

This paper presents fresh ideas on why, in sub-Saharan Africa, people choose to engage in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – for lengthy periods. It nuances claims that ASM is largely ‘poverty-driven’ by weighing in more closely on the fates of individuals in the region who turn to the sector for income out of desperation. A closer inspection of the livelihood trajectories of these people reveals that many have managed to overcome challenging work conditions and position themselves to use ASM as a ‘platform for wealth creation’. An analysis of these experiences reveals a more comprehensive picture of ASM's complexities, as well as illuminates further the sector's economic importance in sub-Saharan Africa. A case study of the gold-rich locality of Prestea, one of Ghana's most strategic ASM corridors and where numerous people who initially pursued work in the sector have managed to accumulate income and open their own businesses and/or invest in the community, is used to reinforce these points. A more complete picture of ASM livelihood trajectories would go a long way towards fortifying the case for formalizing and supporting the sector, and, more generally, making it more of a focal point of rural poverty alleviation and development strategy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Guidance for the Antiracist Educator: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies for Disability and Diversity

Racism in the United States has risen to the forefront of public awareness through the national outrage, grief, and terrible injustice and bias that continues to dictate the fates of individuals in our communities of color. Centuries of systemic racism require our organization to publish innovative evidence-based practices for use in a wide variety of educational programs and settings around topics related to racial and cultural practices. This special edition of Teaching Exceptional Children (TEC) emphasizes racially and culturally competent and sustaining practices when working with students with disabilities who also experience another social identity.

ОБОГАТИТЬ СЛОЖНУЮ ИСТОРИЮ СМУТЫ В РОССИИ [Рец. на кн.: Кабанов А.Ю., Рабинович Я.Н. «Прямые» и кривые» Cмутного времени в России. – М.: Квадрига, 2022

This article reviews A.Yu. Kabanov and Ya.N. Rabinovoch’s book “The Honest and the Unscrupulous in the Time of Troubles in Russia” published in 2022, which is a vivid description of the most prominent figures during the Russian political crisis of the early 17th century. It is argued that the book is timely, as well as highly important and influential for further evolution of history as a field of study. The connection of the authors’ historical narrative with the earlier historiographic traditions is traced. The structure and content of the book are analyzed in detail. It is concluded that the book stands out by its organization and approach. The authors contribute a lot into both a better understanding of the general situation in Russia of the 17th century and to disentangling the complicated issues associated with the Time of Troubles. They describe the dramatic and turbulent events through the fates of specific individuals, thereby proving the key role of the behavioral aspect in historical research. At the end of the review, the need to keep on analyzing historical problems from this angle in modern Russian historiography is substantiated.

Discard Mortality of Red Snapper Released with Descender Devices in the U.S. South Atlantic

AbstractFishery regulations mandate the release of many caught fish, elevating the importance of having accurate estimates of discard mortality. Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus are overfished and undergoing overfishing in the southeast U.S. Atlantic, in part due to the high number of releases that die from discard mortality. We used acoustic telemetry to track the fine‐scale movements of hook‐and‐line‐caught Red Snapper released with descender devices at a hard‐bottom site off North Carolina, USA. Movement characteristics of known‐fate (live and dead) Red Snapper were used to infer fates of other individuals, from which we generated a proportional mortality estimate of 0.08 (95% CI = 0.00–0.17) for successfully descended Red Snapper with no hook trauma. This best‐case mortality estimate was then used in a simulation to estimate overall Red Snapper discard mortality for the recreational fishery in the southeast U.S. Atlantic based on hooking location and a depth of approximately 37 m. For this fishery, we estimated the median proportional rate of discard mortality to be 0.13 (2.5% and 97.5% percentiles = 0.10, 0.17) if all released individuals were descended. This estimate is lower than the discard mortality values (˜0.2–0.3 for the recreational fishery) used in the current Red Snapper stock assessment, but it is likely not reflective of the current reality given that descender use is not 100% in this region; this estimate is also depth specific. Increased use of descender devices will reduce discard mortality for Red Snapper, enhancing efforts to rebuild this stock.

Evidence‐based conservation in a changing world: lessons from waterbird individual‐based models

AbstractDrivers of environmental change are causing novel combinations of pressures on ecological systems. Prediction in ecology often uses understanding of past conditions to make predictions to the future, but such an approach can breakdown when future conditions have not previously been encountered. Individual‐based models (IBMs) consider ecological systems as arising from the adaptive behavior and fates of individuals and have potential to provide more reliable predictions. To demonstrate potential, we review a lineage of related IBMs addressing the effects of environmental change on waterbirds, comprising 53 case studies of 28 species in 32 sites in 9 countries, using the Drivers‐Pressures‐State‐Impact‐Response (DPSIR) environmental management framework. Each case study comprises the predictions of an IBM on the effects of one or more drivers of environmental change on one or more bird species. Drivers exert a pressure on the environment which is represented in the IBMs as changes in either area or time available for feeding, the quality of habitat, or the energetic cost of living within an environment. Birds in the IBMs adapt to increased pressure by altering their behavioral state, defined as their location, diet, and the proportion of time spent feeding. If the birds are not able to compensate behaviorally, they suffer a physiological impact, determined by a decrease in body energy reserves, increased mortality, or decreased ability to migrate. Each case study assesses the impact of alternative drivers and potential ways to mitigate impacts to advise appropriate conservation management responses. We overview the lessons learned from the case studies and highlight the opportunities of using IBMs to inform conservation management for other species. Key findings indicate that understanding the behavioral and physiological processes that determine whether or not birds survive following a change in their environment is vital, so that mitigation measures can be better targeted. This is especially important where multiple hazards exist so that sensitivities and worse‐case scenarios can be better understood. Increasing the involvement of stakeholders to help inform and shape model development is encouraged and can lead to better representation of the modeled system and wider understanding and support for the final model.

История сирийских христиан на страницах книги «Урмийская трагедия. Житие священномученика Пимена (Белоликова), епископа Cемиреченского и Верненского»

The peer-reviewed monographic study by Archimandrite Damaskin (Orlovsky), dedicated to the little-studied problem of the missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church and the policy of the Russian government towards the Christian part of the Syrian people, has been carried out on the basis of a vast array of archival primary sources, many of which have been thus introduced into scientific use. It is noted that the peer-reviewed work is one of the first, where the author, acting simultaneously as historian and as agiator, recreates the historical canvas of the saint’s life on the basis of a comprehensive study of archival sources, including documented testimonies of persons who were canonized, but whose names and works were crossed out from the official historiography. The review shows that the historical and agiographic context of the author's study has allowed him to quickly and comprehensively recreate historical facts and events, fates of individuals and to reveal their morality. The reviewer appreciates the historical significance of the book's materials, believing that they deserve the closest attention of historians, foreign policy specialists, political scientists, clergy, scholars in historical psychology. The book will be of interest to teachers and students studying the history of religions and of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Kazakh nomads: the road to socialism

The article deals with the history of socio-economic modernization of Kazakhstan in the 1920s-1930s. Based on the methodology of interdisciplinary approach the author has revealed the micro-sketches of the process of forced collectivization and its consequences. The relevance of the proposed study is the need to develop, a platform generally accepted historical concept of the Sovietization of the Kazakh aul, the definition of its regional specificity to understand the causes of such disastrous consequences. The spearhead of the permanent violence in the Kazakh steppe was directed to the eradication of the kin networks of the Kazakh aul and the formation of the Soviet identity of the Kazakh aul. The path to socialism destroyed the structural elements of the social life and traditional culture of the Kazakhs. Adaptation processes of Kazakh people conditioned new rules of Soviet social life, combined with applied survival strategies and practices of conformist behaviour. The content of the article is based on the analysis of adaptation practices of Kazakh nomads on documents and materials from archival fonds. The author shows daily, individual strategies of adaptation and survival of the population, in conditions of implementation of the program of social and economic modernization of the Kazakh aul. The result of author’s research is the analysis of two behavioural levels: fleeing - migrating and adaptation, that became a consequence of economic coercion and destruction of the social layer of «the former». Kazakh auls transferred the network of tribal communications and the system of traditional values to the collective farm, forming unique «Kazakh-style collective farms». Election campaigns to the grass-roots apparatus of the Soviet power became the place of clan battles. The power actively used intra- and inter-clan conflicts for realization of strategic tasks of socialist construction. However, the status ranking of clan structures provoked unethical forms of behaviour such as denunciation, incitement, and the use of compromising materials. The documents have preserved many micro-histories which focus on the fates of individuals and the tragedy of family breakdown because of confiscation, eviction, and divorce. These fragments of oral history reveal the reasons behind the Kazakh aul’s nomadic move. To summarize, the author noted that on the one hand clan traditionality was trying to solidify itself under Sovietism, while on the other hand it was trying to escape from direct conflict by fleeing. However, all the adaptive behavioural levels taken together could not save the nomads from starvation. The «imagined community» of the Kazakhs was destroyed not so much by generic contradictions as by the political will of the Soviet state, for the sake of forming a new Soviet identity, a new Soviet society. On the way to socialism the historical memory was transformed, and the ancestral memory of the Kazakh people was destroyed

Dokument wielkiej zmiany. Busz po polsku Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego w kontekście polskiego reportażu okresu Października 1956

The aim of the article is to discuss the differences and similarities between the reportages from the period of October 1956 and the reportages of Ryszard Kapuściński from the volume Busz po polsku. The works share the following similarities: the conviction of the cognitive value of reporter’s journeys to the province and the belief in the reporter’s power to intervene in the reality. The list of differences, on the other hand, includes: the absence of blame and revindication, the emphasis put on the private fates of individuals, and the assumption that the provincial backwardness is a civilizational problem, not a political one.

Failing to remember: afterlives and Stolpersteine in the Nordic region

Artist Gunter Demnig’s counter-memorial project Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) installs small brass plaques into the pavement in front of homes from which Nazi victims were deported. Extending to 27 countries, over 70,000 plaques are embossed with the names and fates of individuals memorialized. This article discusses the material, visual and narrative representations of the afterlives of the victims, addressing how the memory of their lives has been muted, forgotten and reinserted into the landscape. It is based on fieldwork throughout Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Stolpersteine , as objets chargés , engender contestations: they are celebrated, banned, cherished and vandalized. For some, Stolpersteine can serve as ersatz gravestones. Their afterlives are complex and destabilizing, both inspiring and politically controversial. Drawing from Nora’s notion lieux de mémoires , the concept of lieux chargés is introduced to theorize the salient sites and events relating to the processes, dynamics and emerging rituals surrounding Stolpersteine .

Coral Bleaching Susceptibility Is Predictive of Subsequent Mortality Within but Not Between Coral Species

Marine heat waves instigated by anthropogenic climate change are causing increasingly frequent and severe coral bleaching events that often lead to widespread coral mortality. While community-wide increases in coral mortality following bleaching events have been documented on reefs around the world, the ecological consequences for conspecific individual colonies exhibiting contrasting phenotypes during heat stress (e.g. bleached vs. not bleached) are not well understood. Here we describe the ecological outcomes of the two dominant reef-building coral species in Kāneʻohe Bay, Hawaiʻi, Montipora capitata and Porites compressa, by monitoring the fates of individuals that exhibited either a bleaching susceptible phenotype (bleached) or resistant phenotype (non-bleached) following the second of two consecutive coral bleaching events in Hawaiʻi in 2015. Conspecific pairs of adjacent bleaching susceptible vs. resistant corals were tagged on patch reefs in two regions of Kāneʻohe Bay with different seawater residence times and terrestrial influence. The ecological consequences (symbiont recovery and mortality) were monitored for two years following the peak of the bleaching event. Bleaching susceptible corals suffered higher partial mortality than bleaching resistant corals of the same species in the first 6 months following heat stress. Surprisingly, P. compressa had greater resilience following bleaching (faster pigment recovery and lower post-bleaching mortality) than M. capitata, despite having less resistance to bleaching (higher bleaching prevalence and severity). These differences indicate that bleaching susceptibility of a species is not always a good predictor of mortality following a bleaching event. By tracking the fate of individual colonies of resistant and susceptible phenotypes, contrasting ecological consequences of heat stress were revealed that were undetectable at the population level. Furthermore, this approach revealed individuals that underwent particularly rapid recovery from mortality, including some colonies over a meter in diameter that recovered all live tissue cover from >60% partial mortality within just one year. These coral pairs (44 pairs of each species) continue to be maintained and monitored in the field, serving as a “living library” for future investigations on the ecology and physiology of coral bleaching.

Aerial baiting and wild dog mortality in south-eastern Australia

Abstract ContextWild dogs, including dingoes and dingo cross-breeds, are vertebrate pests when they cause financial losses and emotional costs by harming livestock or pets, threaten human safety or endanger native fauna. Tools for lethal management of these animals currently include aerial baiting with poisoned baits. In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, aerial baiting was previously permitted at a rate of 40 baits km−1 but a maximum rate of 10 baits km−1 was subsequently prescribed by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. The efficacy of these baiting rates has not been quantified in eastern Australia, undermining the value of the policy and rendering adaptive management efforts difficult, at best. AimTo quantify the mortality rate of wild dogs exposed to aerial baiting at historic and currently approved rates, i.e. 40 baits per kilometre and 10 baits per kilometre, respectively. MethodsWild dog mortality rates were measured at sites in mesic north-eastern NSW, where aerial baiting was applied to control wild dogs and contrasted with sites and individuals where no baiting was undertaken. In total, 132 wild dogs were trapped and fitted with GPS-VHF telemetry collars before annual aerial baiting programs. Collars were used to locate animals after aerial baiting and to determine the fates of individuals. Key results90.6% of collared wild dogs exposed to aerial baiting at 40 baits km−1 died, whereas only 55.3% of those exposed to 10 baits km−1 died (Welsh’s t=4.478, P=0.004, v=6.95). All wild dogs that were not exposed to toxic baits survived during the same periods. ConclusionManagers using aerial baiting to maximise wild dog mortality in mesic south-eastern Australia should use 40 baits km−1 rather than 10 baits km−1. ImplicationsWild dog population reduction for mitigation of livestock and faunal predation requires the application of efficacious control. The currently prescribed maximum aerial baiting rate of 10 baits km−1 is inadequate for controlling wild dog populations in mesic forest environments in NSW.

Risk and the Unfairness of Some Being Better Off at the Expense of Others

This paper offers a novel account of how complaints of unfairness arise in risky distributive cases. According to a recently proposed view in distributive ethics, the Competing Claims View, an individual has a claim to a benefit when her well-being is at stake, and the strength of this claim is determined by the expected gain to the individual’s well-being, along with how worse off the individual is compared to others (Voorhoeve and Fleurbaey, 2012: 397). If an individual is at a lower level of well-being than another, their claim to a given benefit is stronger. On this view, the strength of individuals’ claims are a function of their comparative well-being levels. In this paper, I instead argue that competing claims obtain only when a particular relationship obtains between the fates of individuals: that one individual’s gain is at the expense of another. This is a particular complaint that obtains when the fates of individuals are tied together in such a way that inequality that is to the detriment of the person who is worse off is guaranteed (or likely) to obtain. I demonstrate that this complaint arises only when individuals are exposed to a particular type of risk that allows some to gain only if others lose. As such, I propose that complaints of unfairness occur less frequently than we might think if we take the Competing Claims View to be true. A purely comparative view is unable to account for this unique complaint of unfairness. I argue that this complaint is not only independently plausible, but can serve as a foundation for a more general account of competing claims complaints.

Oxytocin modulates charismatic influence in groups.

Charismatic leaders have had tremendous effects on the fortunes and fates of individuals and societies across the world. Via verbal and nonverbal signaling, such leaders form profound emotional bonds with followers. Despite evidence for its powerful effects, we know very little about what facilitates the charismatic relationship. Here, we argue that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), known to be implicated in parent-child attachment, also enhances the effects of charismatic leaders in groups. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we administered intranasal OT to participants, led by a confederate trained to exhibit charisma, and monitored participants' responses to the confederate's signaling while leading a group task. We found that OT enhanced the effects of 3 common manifestations of charismatic signaling-verbal behaviors, nonverbal behaviors, and followers' perceptions of the confederate's charisma-on classic outcomes of charismatic influence. Specifically, participants under OT showed more expressions of positive affect and mimicry of the leader in response to the confederate's signaling, and perceptions of the confederate's charisma had stronger effects on participants' willingness to trust each other. These findings extend the role of OT beyond the attachment bond to explain leader-follower relationships, shed light on the role of neuroendocrine factors in contagion processes in groups, and support the social saliency perspective of OT. We note, however, that because charisma was not manipulated, we had reduced control over the confederates' specific behaviors. We address this limitation in the Discussion, point to broader theoretical implications of our work, and offer ideas for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

New Approaches to the Halifax Explosion

New Approaches to the Halifax Explosion Leslie Baker (bio) IN APRIL 2018, ACTOR ROB LOWE appeared on the American talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his most recent movie. In the segment he adlibbed about the Halifax Explosion and explained that he had convinced the movie's producers to change his character's nickname from "The Explosion" to "The Halifax Explosion." Lowe went on to (mis)educate the host of the show, Jimmy Kimmel, about the details of the Halifax Explosion, and between the two men it was implied that the explosion was a forgotten historical event. Only four months earlier, on 6 December 2017, following months of preparation and public events leading up to the anniversary, the centenary of the Halifax Explosion was commemorated. The response from Canadians to the segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live was swift and largely condemnatory of both Lowe's inaccurate recounting of the details of the disaster and the conclusion reached by the men that it was acceptable to laugh about the disaster now because it was 100 years ago and the victims have been "forgotten."1 In the days that followed the story was picked up by provincial and national news outlets, first as a quirky interest piece but soon the focus shifted to popular outrage that the two men had joked about a tragedy that, despite being a century in the past, is still seen by many as integral to the identity of Haligonians. The short-lived scandal seemed to culminate in a letter being sent from Nova Scotian provincial labour minister Labi Kousoulis requesting an official apology from the comedian.2 Aside from the attention garnered by the irreverent treatment of the disaster detailed above, the assortment of new scholarship on the disaster and the contemporary responses to it published in 2017 (both locally and internationally) make it clear that the explosion, its victims, and its lasting effects are far from forgotten. The six texts reviewed here highlight the diversity of approaches to, and interpretations of, the records of this historic disaster: John Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy and Extraordinary Heroism; Keith Cuthbertson's The Halifax Explosion: Canada's Worst Disaster; David Sutherland's "We Harbor No Evil Design": Rehabilitation Efforts After the Halifax Explosion of 1917; Michael Dupuis's Bearing Witness: Journalists, Record Keepers and the 1917 Halifax Explosion; Dan Soucoup's Explosion in Halifax Harbour, 1917; and Susan Dodd's The Halifax Explosion: The Apocalypse of Samuel H. Prince.3 These texts are academic or popular works that have been authored by three historians, two journalists, and a political theorist. Uncommon though it may be [End Page 151] to review popular works alongside academic, the assortment represented here is reflective of the wide interest in the disaster, its causes, and aftereffects. The two monographs by journalists, Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion and Cuthbertson's The Halifax Explosion, have both been published by the trade press Harper Collins and, as such, seek to engage a popular audience. Bacon and Cuthbertson each promise to answer enduring questions about the disaster and to humanize the story by exploring the lives and fates of individuals affected by the blast. This, however, is where the two part ways; while Bacon describes the explosion as a "forgotten disaster,"4 Cuthbertson more rightly considers the disaster to be "an integral element of the city's self-identity and of Canada's national mythology" that is far from forgotten.5 These two quotations, each part of the respective author's introduction, are representative of how each has approached the topic. John U. Bacon, an American professor of journalism, takes a more sensationalist approach as he endeavours to reconstruct the worlds and experiences of victims and survivors while relying on his audience to have very little knowledge of the disaster or of Nova Scotian history. Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy and Extraordinary Heroism draws primarily on familiar secondary sources, including the works of Kitz, Bird, Beed, Dupuis (also reviewed here), and Ruffman and Howell.6 The narrative that Bacon constructs takes a new approach to the history of...

Mismeasured mortality: correcting estimates of wolf poaching in the United States.

Measuring rates and causes of mortalities is important in animal ecology and management. Observing the fates of known individuals is a common method of estimating life history variables, including mortality patterns. It has long been assumed that data lost when known animals disappear were unbiased. We test and reject this assumption under conditions common to most, if not all, studies using marked animals. We illustrate the bias for 4 endangered wolf populations in the United States by reanalyzing data and assumptions about the known and unknown fates of marked wolves to calculate the degree to which risks of different causes of death were mismeasured. We find that, when using traditional methods, the relative risk of mortality from legal killing measured as a proportion of all known fates was overestimated by 0.05–0.16 and the relative risk of poaching was underestimated by 0.17–0.44. We show that published government estimates are affected by these biases and, importantly, are underestimating the risk of poaching. The underestimates have obscured the magnitude of poaching as the major threat to endangered wolf populations. We offer methods to correct estimates of mortality risk for marked animals of any taxon and describe the conditions under which traditional methods produce more or less bias. We also show how correcting past and future estimates of mortality parameters can address uncertainty about wildlife populations and increase the predictability and sustainability of wildlife management interventions.

Biocontrol insect impacts population growth of its target plant species but not an incidentally used nontarget

AbstractUnderstanding the impact of herbivory on plant populations is a fundamental goal of ecology. Damage to individual plants can be visually striking and affect the fates of individuals, but these impacts do not necessarily translate into population‐level differences in vital rates (survival, growth, or fecundity) or population growth rates. In biological control of weeds, quantitative assessments of population‐level impacts of released agents on both target invasive plants and native, nontarget plants are needed to inform evaluations of the benefits and risks of releasing agents into new regions. Here we present a 3‐yr experimental demographic field study using the European root‐feeding biocontrol weevil, Mogulones crucifer, first released in Canada in 1997 to control the invasive weed Cynoglossum officinale (Boraginaceae). Mogulones crucifer is an effective “search and destroy” agent in Canada, but sporadically feeds, oviposits, and develops on native nontarget Boraginaceae. We investigated the population‐level impacts of this biocontrol insect on its target weed and a native nontarget plant, Hackelia micrantha (Boraginaceae), by releasing large numbers of weevils into naturally occurring patches of H. micrantha growing isolated from or interspersed with C. officinale. We followed the fates of individual plants on release and nonrelease (control) sites for two transition years, developed matrix models to project population growth rates (λ) for each plant species, and examined the contributions from differences in vital rates to changes in λ using life table response experiments (LTRE). In contrast to studies of the insect–plant interaction in its native range, as a biocontrol agent, M. crucifer increased mortality of C. officinale rosettes in the year immediately following release, depressing the weed's λ to below the population replacement level. However, λ for H. micrantha was never depressed below the replacement level, and any differences between release and nonrelease sites in the nontarget could not be explained by significant contributions from vital rates in the LTRE. This study is the first to simultaneously and experimentally examine target and nontarget population‐level impacts of a weed biocontrol insect in the field, and supports the theoretical prediction that plant life history characteristics and uneven herbivore host preferences can interact to produce differences in population‐level impacts between target and nontarget plant species.

Individual Identification of the Endangered Wyoming ToadAnaxyrus baxteriand Implications for Monitoring Species Recovery

Abstract Monitoring the fates of individuals after release in the wild is essential for building effective species recovery programs. Current conservation efforts for the endangered Wyoming Toad (Anaxyrus baxteri) are limited by the size and number of toads that can be individually marked using invasive tagging techniques. We evaluated the use of natural patterns of wart-like glands on the dorsum of Wyoming Toads as a potential identification technique. We photographed 194 known-identity individuals (822 total images, representing 1,554 true matching-image pairs of the same individuals) from two captive-breeding facilities in 2011 and 2012. Spot patterns provided stable markings from metamorphosis through adult life stages, and naive observers correctly matched 100% of a subset of photo pairs “by eye.” In contrast, computer-assisted identification performed relatively poorly: the two software platforms tested (Wild-ID and Hotspotter) failed to match 47% and 64% of true matching-image pairs, respectively. ...

God and the Welfare State - Substitutes or Complements? An Experimental Test of the Effect of Belief in God's Control.

Belief in God’s control of the world is common to many of the world’s religions, but there are conflicting predictions regarding its role in shaping attitudes toward the welfare state. While the devout are expected to support pro-social values like helping others, and thus might be supportive of the welfare state, the possibility of taking action is undermined by the belief in God’s absolute control over world affairs and in a morally perfect providence, who is responsible for the fates of individuals. As the literature provides mixed results on this question, this study examines the role of belief in God’s control on welfare attitudes using three priming experiments and two priming tasks, carried out with a design that is both cross-cultural (US vs. Israel) and cross-religious tradition (Judaism vs. Catholicism). We find evidence that, largely, belief in God’s control increases support for income redistribution among Israeli Jews (study 1), American Jews (study 2), and American Catholics (study 3). The findings suggest that the traditional and common political gap between the economic left and the religious, based on the evaluation that religious beliefs lead to conservative economic preferences, may be overstated.

A retrospective, dual‐isotope approach reveals individual predispositions to winter‐drought induced tree dieback in the southernmost distribution limit of Scots pine

Winter-drought induced forest diebacks in the low-latitude margins of species' distribution ranges can provide new insights into the mechanisms (carbon starvation, hydraulic failure) underlying contrasting tree reactions. We analysed a winter-drought induced dieback at the Scots pine's southern edge through a dual-isotope approach (Δ(13) C and δ(18) O in tree-ring cellulose). We hypothesized that a differential long-term performance, mediated by the interaction between CO(2) and climate, determined the fates of individuals during dieback. Declining trees showed a stronger coupling between climate, growth and intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi) than non-declining individuals that was noticeable for 25 years prior to dieback. The rising stomatal control of water losses with time in declining trees, indicated by negative Δ(13) C-δ(18) O relationships, was likely associated with their native aptitude to grow more and take up more water (suggested by larger tracheid lumen widths) than non-declining trees and, therefore, to exhibit a greater cavitation risk. Freeze-thaw episodes occurring in winter 2001 unveiled such physiological differences by triggering dieback in those trees more vulnerable to hydraulic failure. Thus, WUEi tightly modulated growth responses to long-term warming in declining trees, indicating that co-occurring individuals were differentially predisposed to winter-drought mortality. These different performances were unconnected to the depletion of stored carbohydrates.