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In wild long-lived animals, analysis of impacts of stressful natal conditions on adult performance has rarely embraced the entire age span, and the possibility that costs are expressed late in life has seldom been examined. Using 26 years of data from 8541 fledglings and 1310 adults of the blue-footed booby ( Sula nebouxii ), a marine bird that can live up to 23 years, we tested whether experiencing the warm waters and food scarcity associated with El Niño in the natal year reduces recruitment or survival over the adult lifetime. Warm water in the natal year reduced the probability of recruiting; each additional degree (°C) of water temperature meant a reduction of roughly 50% in fledglings' probability of returning to the natal colony as breeders. Warm water in the current year impacted adult survival, with greater effect at the oldest ages than during early adulthood. However, warm water in the natal year did not affect survival at any age over the adult lifespan. A previous study showed that early recruitment and widely spaced breeding allow boobies that experience warm waters in the natal year to achieve normal fledgling production over the first 10 years; our results now show that this reproductive effort incurs no survival penalty, not even late in life. This pattern is additional evidence of buffering against stressful natal conditions via life-history adjustments.

The depth distribution of reef-building corals exposes their photosynthetic symbionts of the genus Symbiodinium to extreme gradients in the intensity and spectral quality of the ambient light environment. Characterizing the mechanisms used by the coral holobiont to respond to the low intensity and reduced spectral composition of the light environment in deeper reefs (greater than 20 m) is fundamental to our understanding of the functioning and structure of reefs across depth gradients. Here, we demonstrate that host pigments, specifically photoconvertible red fluorescent proteins (pcRFPs), can promote coral adaptation/acclimatization to deeper-water light environments by transforming the prevalent blue light into orange-red light, which can penetrate deeper within zooxanthellae-containing tissues; this facilitates a more homogeneous distribution of photons across symbiont communities. The ecological importance of pcRFPs in deeper reefs is supported by the increasing proportion of red fluorescent corals with depth (measured down to 45 m) and increased survival of colour morphs with strong expression of pcRFPs in long-term light manipulation experiments. In addition to screening by host pigments from high light intensities in shallow water, the spectral transformation observed in deeper-water corals highlights the importance of GFP-like protein expression as an ecological mechanism to support the functioning of the coral– Symbiodinium association across steep environmental gradients.

Although the classic interpretation of Heinrich events being produced by internal Laurentide ice-sheet oscillations (1) had some deficiencies, its simplicity permitted it to survive 2 decades. However, recent articles finally shed light on the mystery of how Heinrich events are triggered. In PNAS, Marcott et al. (2) reported Mg/Ca data from the northwest Atlantic Ocean revealing an AMOC (Atlantic meridional overturning circulation) slowdown accompanied by a large subsurface warming that occurred more than 1,000 years before Heinrich events. The crux, indeed, resided in the subsurface of the ocean. Thanks to recent observations around Antarctica, the poorly understood coupled effects between ocean and ice-sheet dynamics have been revealed to be crucial for understanding past massive iceberg purges. In this way, the observed control that a warming ocean exerts on the ice-streams regime (3), combined with the confirmed anticipation of an AMOC slowdown (4) and a large subsurface warming (2), clearly indicates a climatic precursor for Heinrich events. The scenario can thus be summarized as follows (Fig. 1 illustrates the mechanism specifically for Heinrich event 1):

The deuterium excess of polar ice cores documents past changes in evaporation conditions and moisture origin. New data obtained from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C East Antarctic ice core provide new insights on the sequence of events involved in Termination II, the transition between the penultimate glacial and interglacial periods. This termination is marked by a north-south seesaw behavior, with first a slow methane concentration rise associated with a strong Antarctic temperature warming and a slow deuterium excess rise. This first step is followed by an abrupt north Atlantic warming, an abrupt resumption of the East Asian summer monsoon, a sharp methane rise, and a CO2 overshoot, which coincide within dating uncertainties with the end of Antarctic optimum. Here, we show that this second phase is marked by a very sharp Dome C centennial deuterium excess rise, revealing abrupt reorganization of atmospheric circulation in the southern Indian Ocean sector. International audience

UNLABELLED: Fishing represents a major problem for conservation of chondrichthyans, with a quarter of all species being overexploited. School sharks, Galeorhinus galeus, are targeted by commercial fisheries in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian stock has been depleted to below 20% of its virgin biomass, and the species is recorded as Conservation Dependent within Australia. Individuals are known to move between both countries, but it is disputed whether the stocks are reproductively linked. Accurate and unbiased determination of stock and population connectivity is crucial to inform effective management. In this study, we assess the genetic composition and population connectivity between Australian and New Zealand school sharks using genome-wide SNPs, while accounting for non-random kin sampling. Between 2009 and 2013, 88 neonate and juvenile individuals from Tasmanian and New Zealand nurseries were collected and genotyped. Neutral loci were analyzed to detect fine-scale signals of reproductive connectivity. Seven full-sibling groups were identified and removed for unbiased analysis. Based on 6,587 neutral SNPs, pairwise genetic differentiation from Tasmanian and New Zealand neonates was non-significant (F ST = 0.0003, CI95 = [-0.0002, 0.0009], p = 0.1163; D est = 0.0006 ± 0.0002). This pattern was supported by clustering results. In conclusion, we show a significant effect of non-random sampling of kin and identify fine-scale reproductive connectivity between Australian and New Zealand school sharks. OPEN RESEARCH BADGES: This article has earned an Open Data Badge for making publicly available the digitally-shareable data necessary to reproduce the reported results. The data is available at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pd8612j. ispartof: ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION vol:9 issue:8 pages:4465-4472 ispartof: location:England status: published

Abstract The Isla del Coco National Park, located on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, is rich in biodiversity and has a high concentration of pelagic species. This high marine biodiversity makes the Isla del Coco National Park (PNIC) a very attractive place for illegal fishers. We analyzed a dataset covering 8 years (2003–2010) of patrol records from PNIC with the aim of determining, a) the spatial-temporal distribution of illegal fishing, b) other areas that could be prone to illegal fishing but are currently undetected, c) the most profitable areas for this activity and d) the economic trade-offs of this illegal activity in relation to potential gains and the costs. Residuals Autocovariate Generalized Additive Models (RAC-GAMs) were used to model the illegal fishing activity's spatial distribution in relation to topographic, biological and temporal (quarter of the year) variables. The final RAC-GAM showed that bathymetry, distance from the coast, slope of the seabed, and yellowfin tuna and silky shark abundance were the most important predictors of this activity. Predictive maps suggest a major trend in the abundance of illegal fishing between the second and third quarters of the year in waters surrounding a seamount within the Park. Maps of the most profitable areas highlighted a specific risk location that should be intensively monitored. Overall, the potential gains from this activity outweigh the potential costs of being caught. Our findings provide useful information that can be used to optimize enforcement, deter illegal fishing and, consequently, increasing the conservation of the protected species.