ALBERT

Beschreibung: Contrasting with birds and mammals, poikilothermic vertebrates often have homomorphic sex chromosomes, possibly resulting from high rates of sex-chromosome turnovers and/or occasional X–Y recombination. Strong support for the latter mechanism was provided by four species of European tree frogs, which inherited from a common ancestor (~5 Ma) the same pair of homomorphic sex chromosomes (linkage group 1, LG1), harboring the candidate sex-determining gene Dmrt1. Here, we test sex linkage of LG1 across six additional species of the Eurasian Hyla radiation with divergence times ranging from 6 to 40 Ma. LG1 turns out to be sex linked in six of nine resolved cases. Mapping the patterns of sex linkage to the Hyla phylogeny reveals several transitions in sex-determination systems within the last 10 My, including one switch in heterogamety. Phylogenetic trees of DNA sequences along LG1 are consistent with occasional X–Y recombination in all species where LG1 is sex linked. These patterns argue against one of the main potential causes for turnovers, namely the accumulation of deleterious mutations on nonrecombining chromosomes. Sibship analyses show that LG1 recombination is strongly reduced in males from most species investigated, including some in which it is autosomal. Intrinsically low male recombination might facilitate the evolution of male heterogamety, and the presence of important genes from the sex-determination cascade might predispose LG1 to become a sex chromosome.

Beschreibung: The term river herring collectively refers to alewife ( Alosa pseudoharengus ) and blueback herring ( A. aestivalis ), two anadromous fishes distributed along the east coast of North America. Historically, river herring spawning migrations supported important fisheries, and their spawning runs continue to be of cultural significance to many coastal communities. Recently, substantial declines in spawning run size prompted a petition to consider river herring for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA status review process requires an evaluation of a species' response to multiple stressors, including climate change. For anadromous species that utilize a range of habitats throughout their life cycle, the response to a changing global climate is inherently complex and likely varies regionally. River herring occupy marine habitat for most of their lives, and we demonstrate that their relative abundance in the ocean has been increasing in recent years. We project potential effects of ocean warming along the US Atlantic coast on river herring in two seasons (spring and fall), and two future periods (2020–2060 and 2060–2100) by linking species distribution models to projected temperature changes from global climate models. Our analyses indicate that climate change will likely result in reductions in total suitable habitat across the study region, which will alter the marine distribution of river herring. We also project that density will likely decrease for both species in fall, but may increase in spring. Finally, we demonstrate that river herring may have increased sensitivity to climate change under a low abundance scenario. This result could be an important consideration for resource managers when planning for climate change because establishing effective conservation efforts in the near term may improve population resiliency and provide lasting benefits to river herring populations.

Beschreibung: The 16 October 1999 Hector Mine earthquake ( M w  7.1) was the first large earthquake for which postearthquake airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data were collected to image the fault surface rupture. In this work, we present measurements of both vertical and horizontal slip along the entire surface rupture of this earthquake based on airborne LiDAR data acquired in April 2000. We examine the details of the along-fault slip distribution of this earthquake based on 255 horizontal and 85 vertical displacements using a 0.5 m digital elevation model derived from the LiDAR imagery. The slip measurements based on the LiDAR dataset are highest in the epicentral region, and taper in both directions, consistent with earlier findings by other works. The maximum dextral displacement measured from LiDAR imagery is 6.60±1.10 m, located about 700 m south of the highest field measurement (5.25±0.85 m). Our results also illustrate the difficulty in resolving displacements smaller than 1 m using LiDAR imagery alone. We analyze slip variation to see if it is affected by rock type and whether variations are statistically significant. This study demonstrates that a postearthquake airborne LiDAR survey can produce an along-fault horizontal and vertical offset distribution plot of a quality comparable to a reconnaissance field survey. Although LiDAR data can provide a higher sampling density and enable rapid data analysis for documenting slip distributions, we find that, relative to field methods, it has a limited ability to resolve slip that is distributed over several fault strands across a zone. We recommend a combined approach that merges field observation with LiDAR analysis, so that the best attributes of both quantitative topographic and geological insight are utilized in concert to make best estimates of offsets and their uncertainties. Online Material: Tables of LiDAR displacement measurements; slip distributions plots; Google Earth index files and locations where displacements were made; LiDAR data files, and access information to view screen captures of the displacement measurements.