Analyses of the C. kousa evolutionary history using the accrued genotyping datasets pointed to an unsampled ancestor population, possibly now extinct, as per the phylogeography of the region. To our knowledge, there are few studies utilizing the same gDNA collection to compare performance of genomic and genic microsatellites. This is the first detailed report on C. kousa species diversity and evolutionary history inference.The maintenance of sexuality is a puzzling phenomenon in evolutionary biology. Many universal hypotheses have been proposed to explain the prevalence of sex despite its costs, but it has been hypothesized that sex could be also retained by lineage-specific mechanisms that would confer some short-term advantage. Aphids are good models to study the maintenance of sex because they exhibit coexistence of both sexual and asexual populations within the same species and because they invade a large variety of ecosystems. Sex in aphids is thought to be maintained because only sexually produced eggs can persist in cold climates, but whether sex is obligate or facultative depending on climatic conditions remains to be elucidated. In this study, we have inferred the reproductive mode of introduced populations of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum in Chile along a climatic gradient using phenotypic assays and genetic-based criteria to test the ecological short-term advantage of sex in cold environments. Our results showed a latitudinal trend in the reproductive mode of Chilean pea aphid population from obligate parthenogenesis in the north to an intermediate life cycle producing both parthenogenetic and sexual progeny in the southernmost locality, where harsh winters are usual. These findings are congruent with the hypothesis of the ecological short-term advantage of sex in aphids.Plants provide resources and shape the habitat of soil organisms thereby affecting the composition and functioning of soil communities. Effects of plants on soil communities are largely taxon-dependent, but how different functional groups of herbaceous plants affect trophic niches of individual animal species in soil needs further investigation. Here, we studied the use of basal resources and trophic levels of dominating soil meso- and macrofauna using stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in arable fallow systems 3 and 14-16 years after abandonment. Animals were sampled from the rhizosphere of three plant species of different functional groups a legume (Medicaco sativa), a nonlegume herb (Taraxacum officinale), and a grass (Bromus sterilis). We found virtually no consistent effects of plant identity on stable isotope composition of soil animals and on thirteen isotopic metrics that reflect general food-web structure. However, in old fallows, the carbon isotope composition of some predatory macrofauna taxa had shifted closer to that of co-occurring plants, which was particularly evident for Lasius, an aphid-associated ant genus. Trophic levels and trophic-chain lengths in food webs were similar across plant species and fallow ages. Overall, the results suggest that variations in local plant diversity of grassland communities may little affect the basal resources and the trophic level of prey consumed by individual species of meso- and macrofauna belowground. By contrast, successional changes in grassland communities are associated with shifts in the trophic niches of certain species, reflecting establishment of trophic interactions with time, which shapes the functioning and stability of soil food webs.Coral reef fish larvae are tiny, exceedingly numerous, and hard to track. They are also highly capable, equipped with swimming and sensory abilities that may influence their dispersal trajectories. Despite the importance of larval input to the dynamics of a population, we remain reliant on indirect insights to the processes influencing larval behavior and transport. Here, we used genetic data (300 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms) derived from a light trap sample of a single recruitment event of Dascyllus abudafur in the Red Sea (N = 168 settlers). We analyzed the genetic composition of the larvae and assessed whether kinship among these was significantly different from random as evidence for cohesive dispersal during the larval phase. We used Monte Carlo simulations of similar-sized recruitment cohorts to compare the expected kinship composition relative to our empirical data. The high number of siblings within the empirical cohort strongly suggests cohesive dispersal among larvae. This work highlights the utility of kinship analysis as a means of inferring dynamics during the pelagic larval phase.The potential for ecological niche models (ENMs) to accurately predict species' abundance and demographic performance throughout their geographic distributions remains a topic of substantial debate in ecology and biogeography. Few studies simultaneously examine the relationship between ENM predictions of environmental suitability and both a species' abundance and its demographic performance, particularly across its entire geographic distribution. Yet, studies of this type are essential for understanding the extent to which ENMs are a viable tool for identifying areas that may promote high abundance or performance of a species or how species might respond to future climate conditions. In this study, we used an ensemble ecological niche model to predict climatic suitability for the perennial forb Astragalus utahensis across its geographic distribution. We then examined relationships between projected climatic suitability and field-based measures of abundance, demographic performance, and forecasted stochastic population growth (λs).  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Temsirolimus.html  Predicted climatic suitability showed a J-shaped relationship with A. utahensis abundance, where low-abundance populations were associated with low-to-intermediate suitability scores and abundance increased sharply in areas of high predicted climatic suitability. A similar relationship existed between climatic suitability and λs from the center to the northern edge of the latitudinal distribution. Patterns such as these, where density or demographic performance only increases appreciably beyond some threshold of climatic suitability, support the contention that ENM-predicted climatic suitability does not necessarily represent a reliable predictor of abundance or performance across large geographic regions.