ALBERT

Description: The obligate mutualism between leafcutter ants and their Attamyces fungi originated 8 to 12 million years ago in the tropics, but extends today also into temperate regions in South and North America. The northernmost leafcutter ant Atta texana sustains fungiculture during winter temperatures that would harm the cold-sensitive Attamyces cultivars of tropical leafcutter ants. Cold-tolerance of Attamyces cultivars increases with winter harshness along a south-to-north temperature gradient across the range of A. texana, indicating selection for cold-tolerant Attamyces variants along the temperature cline. Ecological niche modeling corroborates winter temperature as a key range-limiting factor impeding northward expansion of A. texana. The northernmost A. texana populations are able to sustain fungiculture throughout winter because of their cold-adapted fungi and because of seasonal, vertical garden relocation (maintaining gardens deep in the ground in winter to protect them from extreme cold, then moving gardens to warmer, shallow depths in spring). Although the origin of leafcutter fungiculture was an evolutionary breakthrough that revolutionized the food niche of tropical fungus-growing ants, the original adaptations of this host-microbe symbiosis to tropical temperatures and the dependence on cold-sensitive fungal symbionts eventually constrained expansion into temperate habitats. Evolution of cold-tolerant fungi within the symbiosis relaxed constraints on winter fungiculture at the northern frontier of the leafcutter ant distribution, thereby expanding the ecological niche of an obligate host–microbe symbiosis.

Description: Quantitative scenarios are coming of age as a tool for evaluating the impact of future socioeconomic development pathways on biodiversity and ecosystem services. We analyze global terrestrial, freshwater, and marine biodiversity scenarios using a range of measures including extinctions, changes in species abundance, habitat loss, and distribution shifts, as well as comparing model projections to observations. Scenarios consistently indicate that biodiversity will continue to decline over the 21st century. However, the range of projected changes is much broader than most studies suggest, partly because there are major opportunities to intervene through better policies, but also because of large uncertainties in projections.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pereira, Henrique M -- Leadley, Paul W -- Proenca, Vania -- Alkemade, Rob -- Scharlemann, Jorn P W -- Fernandez-Manjarres, Juan F -- Araujo, Miguel B -- Balvanera, Patricia -- Biggs, Reinette -- Cheung, William W L -- Chini, Louise -- Cooper, H David -- Gilman, Eric L -- Guenette, Sylvie -- Hurtt, George C -- Huntington, Henry P -- Mace, Georgina M -- Oberdorff, Thierry -- Revenga, Carmen -- Rodrigues, Patricia -- Scholes, Robert J -- Sumaila, Ussif Rashid -- Walpole, Matt -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Dec 10;330(6010):1496-501. doi: 10.1126/science.1196624. Epub 2010 Oct 26.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal. hpereira@fc.ul.pt〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20978282" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: In 2010, the international community, under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed on 20 biodiversity-related "Aichi Targets" to be achieved within a decade. We provide a comprehensive mid-term assessment of progress toward these global targets using 55 indicator data sets. We projected indicator trends to 2020 using an adaptive statistical framework that incorporated the specific properties of individual time series. On current trajectories, results suggest that despite accelerating policy and management responses to the biodiversity crisis, the impacts of these efforts are unlikely to be reflected in improved trends in the state of biodiversity by 2020. We highlight areas of societal endeavor requiring additional efforts to achieve the Aichi Targets, and provide a baseline against which to assess future progress.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tittensor, Derek P -- Walpole, Matt -- Hill, Samantha L L -- Boyce, Daniel G -- Britten, Gregory L -- Burgess, Neil D -- Butchart, Stuart H M -- Leadley, Paul W -- Regan, Eugenie C -- Alkemade, Rob -- Baumung, Roswitha -- Bellard, Celine -- Bouwman, Lex -- Bowles-Newark, Nadine J -- Chenery, Anna M -- Cheung, William W L -- Christensen, Villy -- Cooper, H David -- Crowther, Annabel R -- Dixon, Matthew J R -- Galli, Alessandro -- Gaveau, Valerie -- Gregory, Richard D -- Gutierrez, Nicolas L -- Hirsch, Tim L -- Hoft, Robert -- Januchowski-Hartley, Stephanie R -- Karmann, Marion -- Krug, Cornelia B -- Leverington, Fiona J -- Loh, Jonathan -- Lojenga, Rik Kutsch -- Malsch, Kelly -- Marques, Alexandra -- Morgan, David H W -- Mumby, Peter J -- Newbold, Tim -- Noonan-Mooney, Kieran -- Pagad, Shyama N -- Parks, Bradley C -- Pereira, Henrique M -- Robertson, Tim -- Rondinini, Carlo -- Santini, Luca -- Scharlemann, Jorn P W -- Schindler, Stefan -- Sumaila, U Rashid -- Teh, Louise S L -- van Kolck, Jennifer -- Visconti, Piero -- Ye, Yimin -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Oct 10;346(6206):241-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1257484. Epub 2014 Oct 2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada. derek.tittensor@unep-wcmc.org. ; United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK. ; Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada. Ocean Sciences Division, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Post Office Box 1006, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2, Canada. ; Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada. ; United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK. Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum, Copenhagen, DK-2100, Denmark. ; BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Cambridge CB3 0NA, UK. ; ESE Laboratory, Universite Paris-Sud, UMR 8079, CNRS-Universite Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France. ; PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Post Office Box 303, 3720 AH, Bilthoven, Netherlands. ; Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy. ; PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Post Office Box 303, 3720 AH, Bilthoven, Netherlands. Department of Earth Sciences-Geochemistry, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Post Office Box 80021, 3508 TA Utrecht, Netherlands. ; Fisheries Centre, The University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. ; Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 413, Saint Jacques Street, Suite 800, Montreal, QC H2Y 1N9, Canada. ; Global Footprint Network, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva, Switzerland. ; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2 rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. ; RSPB Centre for Conservation Science The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK. ; Marine Stewardship Council, 1-3 Snow Hill, London EC1A 2DH, UK. ; The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Secretariat Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 680 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA. ; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International, Charles-de-Gaulle Strasse 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany. ; ESE Laboratory, Universite Paris-Sud, UMR 8079, CNRS-Universite Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France. DIVERSITAS, 57 rue Cuvier-CP 41, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. ; University of Queensland, Diamantina National Park via Winton, QLD 4735, Australia. ; Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. ; Union for Ethical BioTrade, De Ruyterkade 6, 1013 AA, Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany. ; Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Secretariat, Maison internationale de l'environnement, 11-13 Chemin des Anemones, 1219 Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland. ; Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia Brisbane, Qld 4072 Australia. ; The International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) Invasive Species Specialist Group, University of Auckland, Tamaki Campus, Auckland, New Zealand. ; AidData, The College of William and Mary, Post Office Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA. ; Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza-Universita di Roma, Viale dell' Universita 32, 00185 Rome, Italy. ; United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK. School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK. ; Environment Agency Austria, Department of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, Spittelauer Lande 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria. University of Vienna, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, Division of Conservation Biology, Vegetation Ecology and Landscape Ecology, Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna, Austria. ; Microsoft Research, Computational Science Laboratory, 21 Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2FB, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25278504" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Near-infrared H - and K -band spectra are presented for 247 objects, selected from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey as potential young stellar objects (YSOs). 195 (~80 per cent) of the targets are YSOs, of which 131 are massive YSOs ( L BOL  〉 5  x 10 3 L , M  〉 8 M ). This is the largest spectroscopic study of massive YSOs to date, providing a valuable resource for the study of massive star formation. In this paper, we present our exploratory analysis of the data. The YSOs observed have a wide range of embeddedness (2.7 〈 A V  〈 114), demonstrating that this study covers minimally obscured objects right through to very red, dusty sources. Almost all YSOs show some evidence for emission lines, though there is a wide variety of observed properties. The most commonly detected lines are Br, H 2 , fluorescent Fe  ii , CO bandhead, [Fe  ii ] and He  i 2–1 1 S– 1 P, in order of frequency of occurrence. In total, ~40 per cent of the YSOs display either fluorescent Fe  ii 1.6878 μm or CO bandhead emission (or both), indicative of a circumstellar disc; however, no correlation of the strength of these lines with bolometric luminosity was found. We also find that ~60 per cent of the sources exhibit [Fe  ii ] or H 2 emission, indicating the presence of an outflow. Three quarters of all sources have Br in emission. A good correlation with bolometric luminosity was observed for both the Br and H 2 emission line strengths, covering 1 〈 L BOL  〈 3.5  x 10 5 L . This suggests that the emission mechanism for these lines is the same for low-, intermediate- and high-mass YSOs, i.e. high-mass YSOs appear to resemble scaled-up versions of low-mass YSOs.