TY - NEWS TI - The Sunny Side of Life: does sunlight affect chicks still in the eggs? T2 - Birdscope C2 - summer PY - 2011/6// PB - Cornell Lab of Ornithology ER - TY - NEWS TI - I Say "Bird Walk," You Say "Big Day": What do gender patterns mean for the future of bird watching? T2 - Birdscope C2 - Spring PY - 2011/3// PB - Cornell Lab of Ornithology ER - TY - JOUR TI - Low Variation in the Polymorphic Clock Gene Poly-Q Region Despite Population Genetic Structure across Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) Populations AU - Dor, Roi AU - Lovette, Irby J. AU - Safran, Rebecca J. AU - Billerman, Shawn M. AU - Huber, Gernot H. AU - Vortman, Yoni AU - Lotem, Arnon AU - McGowan, Andrew AU - Evans, Matthew R. AU - Cooper, Caren B. AU - Winkler, David W. T2 - PLoS ONE AB - Recent studies of several species have reported a latitudinal cline in the circadian clock gene, Clock, which influences rhythms in both physiology and behavior. Latitudinal variation in this gene may hence reflect local adaptation to seasonal variation. In some bird populations, there is also an among-individual association between Clock poly-Q genotype and clutch initiation date and incubation period. We examined Clock poly-Q allele variation in the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), a species with a cosmopolitan geographic distribution and considerable variation in life-history traits that may be influenced by the circadian clock. We genotyped Barn Swallows from five populations (from three subspecies) and compared variation at the Clock locus to that at microsatellite loci and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). We found very low variation in the Clock poly-Q region, as >96% of individuals were homozygous, and the two other alleles at this locus were globally rare. Genetic differentiation based on the Clock poly-Q locus was not correlated with genetic differentiation based on either microsatellite loci or mtDNA sequences. Our results show that high diversity in Clock poly-Q is not general across avian species. The low Clock variation in the background of heterogeneity in microsatellite and mtDNA loci in Barn Swallows may be an outcome of stabilizing selection on the Clock locus. DA - 2011/12/21/ PY - 2011/12/21/ DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0028843 VL - 6 IS - 12 SP - e28843 J2 - PLoS ONE LA - en OP - SN - 1932-6203 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028843 DB - Crossref ER - TY - JOUR TI - Light increases the rate of embryonic development: implications for latitudinal trends in incubation period AU - Cooper, Caren B. AU - Voss, Margaret A. AU - Ardia, Daniel R. AU - Austin, Suzanne H. AU - Robinson, W. Douglas T2 - Functional Ecology AB - 1. In wild birds, incubation period shortens and the general pace of life quickens with distance from the equator. Temperature and various biotic factors, including adult behaviours, cannot fully account for longer incubation periods of equatorial birds and only explain some of the variation between tropical and temperate life histories. Here we consider the role of differences in light in driving variation in incubation period. In poultry, incubation periods can be experimentally shortened by exposing eggs to light. The positive influence of light on embryonic growth, called photoacceleration, can begin within hours after an egg is laid. 2. We artificially incubated house sparrow (Passer domesticus) eggs under photoperiods similar to those found at temperate (18Light : 6Dark) and tropical (12L : 12D) latitudes. We also measured embryonic metabolic rate during light and dark phases. 3. Eggs of house sparrows collected from the wild developed more rapidly under ‘temperate’ than ‘tropical’ photoperiods and had higher metabolic rates during phases of light exposure than during phases of darkness. Metabolic rates during light phases were high enough to account for a 1 day difference in incubation periods between temperate and tropical birds. 4. Based on a synthesis of photoacceleration studies on domesticated galliformes and our experimental results on a wild passerine, we provide the first support for the testable hypothesis that differences in photoperiod may influence variation in the rate of embryonic development across latitudes in birds. DA - 2011/3/14/ PY - 2011/3/14/ DO - 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01847.x VL - 25 IS - 4 SP - 769-776 LA - en OP - SN - 0269-8463 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01847.x DB - Crossref KW - avian incubation period KW - embryonic metabolic rate KW - house sparrow KW - life-history evolution KW - Passer domesticus KW - photoacceleration KW - photocycles KW - photoperiod ER - TY - BOOK TI - The wild life of our bodies: predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today AU - Dunn, Rob R. DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// PB - Harper Collins SN - 978-0-06-180648-3 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Strong influence of regional species pools on continent-wide structuring of local communities AU - Lessard, Jean-Philippe AU - Borregaard, Michael K. AU - Fordyce, James A. AU - Rahbek, Carsten AU - Weiser, Michael D. AU - Dunn, Robert R. AU - Sanders, Nathan J. T2 - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences AB - There is a long tradition in ecology of evaluating the relative contribution of the regional species pool and local interactions on the structure of local communities. Similarly, a growing number of studies assess the phylogenetic structure of communities, relative to that in the regional species pool, to examine the interplay between broad-scale evolutionary and fine-scale ecological processes. Finally, a renewed interest in the influence of species source pools on communities has shown that the definition of the source pool influences interpretations of patterns of community structure. We use a continent-wide dataset of local ant communities and implement ecologically explicit source pool definitions to examine the relative importance of regional species pools and local interactions for shaping community structure. Then we assess which factors underlie systematic variation in the structure of communities along climatic gradients. We find that the average phylogenetic relatedness of species in ant communities decreases from tropical to temperate regions, but the strength of this relationship depends on the level of ecological realism in the definition of source pools. We conclude that the evolution of climatic niches influences the phylogenetic structure of regional source pools and that the influence of regional source pools on local community structure is strong. DA - 2011/6/15/ PY - 2011/6/15/ DO - 10.1098/rspb.2011.0552 VL - 279 IS - 1727 SP - 266-274 J2 - Proc. R. Soc. B LA - en OP - SN - 0962-8452 1471-2954 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0552 DB - Crossref KW - regional species pool KW - community assembly KW - phylogenetics KW - tropical niche conservatism KW - diversity gradients KW - Formicidae ER - TY - JOUR TI - Media Literacy as a Key Strategy toward Improving Public Acceptance of Climate Change Science AU - Cooper, Caren B. T2 - BioScience AB - Without public trust of climate change science, policymaking in a democratic society cannot address the serious threats that we face. Recent calls for proposals to increase “climate literacy” from federal agencies such as NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the National Science Foundation illustrate the urgency of this crisis. Although more climate change education is certainly needed, focusing solely on climate literacy will not garner public trust and may leave out high-impact media literacy education. Climate change deniers have been more effective “educators” than scientists and science educators because their messages are (a) empowering, built on the premise that every individual can quickly learn enough to enter public discourse on climate change; and (b) delivered through many forms of media. A more effective strategy for scientists and science educators should include not only discourse approaches that enable trust, with emphasis on empowerment through reasoning skills, but also approaches that embrace the maturing discipline of media literacy education. DA - 2011/3// PY - 2011/3// DO - 10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.8 VL - 61 IS - 3 SP - 231-237 J2 - BioScience LA - en OP - SN - 0006-3568 1525-3244 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.8 DB - Crossref KW - informal science education KW - global warming KW - public understanding of science KW - public engagement with science KW - science literacy ER - TY - JOUR TI - Accounting for the Appeal to the Authority of Experts AU - Goodwin, Jean T2 - Argumentation DA - 2011/7/26/ PY - 2011/7/26/ DO - 10.1007/S10503-011-9219-6 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 285-296 J2 - Argumentation LA - en OP - SN - 0920-427X 1572-8374 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/S10503-011-9219-6 DB - Crossref KW - Argumentation KW - Expertise KW - Authority KW - Appeal to authority KW - Deliberation KW - Normative pragmatics ER - TY - JOUR TI - Talking Sustainability: Identification and Division in an Iowa Community AU - Herndl, Carl G. AU - Goodwin, Jean AU - Honeycutt, Lee AU - Wilson, Greg AU - Graham, S. Scott AU - Niedergeses, David T2 - Journal of Sustainable Agriculture AB - This study investigates how sustainability and its inherent values figure into farmers' discourse, i.e., how farmers and members of farming communities talk about sustainability. We conducted qualitative interviews of various individuals in a single Iowa community to determine whether the visions guiding their land management choices resembled at all the ideals of a sustainable agriculture. Using Kenneth Burke's concepts of identification and division, we rhetorically analyzed the interview transcripts. We found animosity towards much green terminology but widespread commitment to environmental preservation, especially when aligned with economic interests. We highlight rhetorical strategies for promoting sustainable practices. DA - 2011/4/4/ PY - 2011/4/4/ DO - 10.1080/10440046.2011.562068 VL - 35 IS - 4 SP - 436-461 J2 - Journal of Sustainable Agriculture LA - en OP - SN - 1044-0046 1540-7578 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10440046.2011.562068 DB - Crossref KW - rhetoric KW - language KW - incommensurability KW - identification KW - economics KW - environment KW - community ER - TY - JOUR TI - How fungi made us hot blooded AU - Dunn, Rob T2 - New Scientist AB - Every day fungi kill millions of animals and plants. Very few of these victims maintain a body temperature above 37 °C. Coincindence? DA - 2011/12// PY - 2011/12// DO - 10.1016/S0262-4079(11)62984-9 VL - 212 IS - 2841 SP - 50-53 J2 - New Scientist LA - en OP - SN - 0262-4079 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0262-4079(11)62984-9 DB - Crossref ER - TY - JOUR TI - The mixed effects of experimental ant removal on seedling distribution, belowground invertebrates, and soil nutrients AU - Zelikova, T.J. AU - Sanders, N.J. AU - Dunn, R.R. T2 - Ecosphere AB - Ants are ubiquitous members of most forest communities, where they disperse seeds, prey on other species, and influence the flow of nutrients. Their effects are often described as substantial, but few studies to date have simultaneously examined how the presence of ants affects both above and belowground processes. In this study, we experimentally reduced ant abundance in a suite of deciduous forest plots in northern Georgia, USA to assess the effects of ants on the spatial distribution of a common understory plant species, Hexastlylis arifolia, the structure of soil mesofaunal communities, and soil nitrogen dynamics. Over the course of several years, the removal of ants led to significant spatial aggregation of H. arifolia seedlings near the parent plant, most likely due to the absence of the keystone seed dispersal species, Aphaenogaster rudis. Seedling emergence was higher in ant removal plots, but seedling aggregation did not affect first or second year seedling mortality. Ammonium concentrations were 10× higher in ant removal plots relative to control plots where ants were present in the first year of the study, but this increase disappeared in the second and third years of the study. The effects of ant removal on the soil mesofauna were mixed: removal of ants apparently did not affect the abundance of Collembola, but the abundance of oribatid mites was significantly higher in ant removal plots by year two of the study. Taken together, these results provide some of the first experimental evidence of the diverse direct and indirect effects of ants on both above and belowground processes in forest ecosystems and demonstrate the potential consequences of losing an important seed dispersing ant species for the plants they disperse. DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// DO - 10.1890/ES11-00073.1 VL - 2 IS - 5 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84859773114&partnerID=MN8TOARS KW - ant removal KW - Aphaenogaster rudis KW - ecosystem processes KW - Hexastylis arifolia KW - multi-species interactions KW - seed dispersal KW - soil nutrient dynamics ER - TY - JOUR TI - Effects of short-term warming on low and high latitude forest ant communities AU - Pelini, S.L. AU - Boudreau, M. AU - McCoy, N. AU - Ellison, A.M. AU - Gotelli, N.J. AU - Sanders, N.J. AU - Dunn, R.R. T2 - Ecosphere AB - Climatic change is expected to have differential effects on ecological communities in different geographic areas. However, few studies have experimentally demonstrated the effects of warming on communities simultaneously at different locales. We manipulated air temperature with in situ passive warming and cooling chambers and quantified effects of temperature on ant abundance, diversity, and foraging activities (predation, scavenging, seed dispersal, nectivory, granivory) in two deciduous forests at 35° and 43° N latitude in the eastern U.S. In the southern site, the most abundant species, Crematogaster lineolata, increased while species evenness, most ant foraging activities, and abundance of several other ant species declined with increasing temperature. In the northern site, species evenness was highest at intermediate temperatures, but no other metrics of diversity or foraging activity changed with temperature. Regardless of temperature, ant abundance and foraging activities at the northern site were several orders of magnitude lower than those in the southern site. DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// DO - 10.1890/ES11-00097.1 VL - 2 IS - 5 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84866346326&partnerID=MN8TOARS KW - climate change KW - community composition KW - foraging KW - Formicidae KW - warming experiment ER - TY - JOUR TI - The gravity of life whose well-being is threatened by our changing relationship with the myriad organisms that shaped the evolution of our species? AU - Dunn, R. T2 - Scientist DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// VL - 25 IS - 6 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-80051728703&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER - TY - JOUR TI - Follow the drinking gourd AU - Dunn, R. T2 - Natural History DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// VL - 119 IS - 5 SP - 10-13 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958841735&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER - TY - JOUR TI - Counting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Biodiversity sampling and statistical analysis for myrmecologists AU - Gotelli, N.J. AU - Ellison, A.M. AU - Dunn, R.R. AU - Sanders, N.J. T2 - Myrmecological News DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// VL - 15 SP - 13-19 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958229707&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER - TY - JOUR TI - Singing in the sky: song variation in an endemic bird on the sky islands of southern India AU - Robin, V.V. AU - Katti, Madhusudan AU - Purushotham, Chetana AU - Sancheti, Aditi AU - Sinha, Anindya T2 - Animal Behaviour AB - Birdsong structure is known to vary across different scales of geographical separation, from differences between neighbours in a habitat to populations across continents. The high-elevation regions of the Western Ghats mountains in southern India form ‘sky islands’ containing the unique Shola habitat. Bird species on such sky islands are often specifically adapted to habitats typical of these islands while populations on different islands may have been geographically isolated over varying periods of time. Forest fragmentation can intensify the effects of such isolation by affecting species dispersal processes. We examined the effects of genetic differentiation across populations on the song of a threatened, endemic bird, the white-bellied shortwing, Brachypteryx major, on different islands of this sky island system. We compared songs from three populations, one of which on one island was genetically distinct from the other two populations on another island. These two populations were genetically similar but separated by recent deforestation. We recorded songs from 23 individuals and characterized 572 songs by 13 parameters. Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences in song between the three populations, with the genetically distinct populations across the two islands being the most differentiated. This was supported by a visual and aural examination of spectrograms that revealed characteristic qualitative differences in songs across these populations. Finally, this study corroborates accepted patterns of congruence between song and genetic divergence across islands and also highlights the difference in song between anthropogenically fragmented, but genetically similar populations, possibly owing to cultural drift. DA - 2011/9// PY - 2011/9// DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.032 VL - 82 IS - 3 SP - 513-520 J2 - Animal Behaviour LA - en OP - SN - 0003-3472 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.05.032 DB - Crossref KW - birdsong KW - Brachypteryx major KW - cultural variation KW - deforestation KW - genetic barrier KW - Shola forest KW - sky island KW - Western Ghats KW - white-bellied shortwing ER - TY - JOUR TI - Interactions between urban water policy, residential irrigation, and plant & bird diversity in the Fresno-Clovis Metro Area AU - Katti, Madhusudan AU - Özgöc-Çağlar, Derya AU - Katti, Madhusudan AU - Reid, Seth AU - Schleder, Bradley AU - Bushoven, John AU - Jones, Andrew AU - Delcore, Henry T2 - Nature Precedings DA - 2011/8/11/ PY - 2011/8/11/ DO - 10.1038/npre.2011.6228 VL - 8 N1 - and plant & bird diversity in the Fresno-Clovis Metro Area', Nature Precedings. RN - and plant & bird diversity in the Fresno-Clovis Metro Area', Nature Precedings. ER - TY - JOUR TI - Cosmological problems with multiple axion-like fields AU - Mack, Katherine J AU - Steinhardt, Paul J T2 - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics AB - Incorporating the QCD axion and simultaneously satisfying current constraints on the dark matter density and isocurvature fluctuations requires non-minimal fine-tuning of inflationary parameters or the axion misalignment angle (or both) for Peccei-Quinn symmetry-breaking scales $f_a > 10^{12}$ GeV. To gauge the degree of tuning in models with many axion-like fields at similar symmetry-breaking scales and masses, as may occur in string theoretic models that include a QCD axion, we introduce a figure of merit ${\cal F}$ that measures the fractional volume of allowed parameter space: the product of the slow roll parameter $\epsilon$ and each of the axion misalignment angles, $\theta_0$. For a single axion, $\mathcal{F} \lesssim 10^{-11}$ is needed to avoid conflict with observations. We show that the fine tuning of $\mathcal{F}$ becomes exponentially more extreme in the case of numerous axion-like fields. Anthropic arguments are insufficient to explain the fine tuning because the bulk of the anthropically allowed parameter space is observationally ruled out by limits on the cosmic microwave background isocurvature modes. Therefore, this tuning presents a challenge to the compatibility of string-theoretic models with light axions and inflationary cosmology. DA - 2011/5/3/ PY - 2011/5/3/ DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2011/05/001 VL - 2011 IS - 05 SP - 001-001 J2 - J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. OP - SN - 1475-7516 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2011/05/001 DB - Crossref KW - axious KW - physics of the early universe KW - string theory and cosmology ER - TY - JOUR TI - Axions, inflation and the anthropic principle AU - Mack, Katherine J T2 - Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics AB - The QCD axion is the leading solution to the strong-CP problem, a dark matter candidate, and a possible result of string theory compactifications. However, for axions produced before inflation, symmetry-breaking scales of fa≳1012 GeV (which are favored in string-theoretic axion models) are ruled out by cosmological constraints unless both the axion misalignment angle θ0 and the inflationary Hubble scale HI are extremely fine-tuned. We show that attempting to accommodate a high-faaxion in inflationary cosmology leads to a fine-tuning problem that is worse than the strong-CP problem the axion was originally invented to solve. We also show that this problem remains unresolved by anthropic selection arguments commonly applied to the high-fa axion scenario. DA - 2011/7/12/ PY - 2011/7/12/ DO - 10.1088/1475-7516/2011/07/021 VL - 2011 IS - 07 SP - 021-021 J2 - J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. OP - SN - 1475-7516 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2011/07/021 DB - Crossref KW - axions KW - string theory and cosmology KW - physics of the early universe ER - TY - JOUR TI - Heating up the forest: open-top chamber warming manipulation of arthropod communities at Harvard and Duke Forests AU - Pelini, Shannon L. AU - Bowles, Francis P. AU - Ellison, Aaron M. AU - Gotelli, Nicholas J. AU - Sanders, Nathan J. AU - Dunn, Robert R. T2 - METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION AB - Summary 1. Recent observations indicate that climatic change is altering biodiversity, and models suggest that the consequences of climate change will differ across latitude. However, long‐term experimental field manipulations that directly test the predictions about organisms’ responses to climate change across latitude are lacking. Such experiments could provide a more mechanistic understanding of the consequences of climate change on ecological communities and subsequent changes in ecosystem processes, facilitating better predictions of the effects of future climate change. 2. This field experiment uses octagonal, 5‐m‐diameter ( c. 22 m 3 ) open‐top chambers to simulate warming at northern (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts) and southern (Duke Forest, North Carolina) hardwood forest sites to determine the effects of warming on ant and other arthropod populations and communities near the edges of their ranges. Each site has 12 plots containing open‐top chambers that manipulate air temperature incrementally from ambient to 6 °C above ambient. Because the focus of this study is on mobile, litter‐ and soil‐dwelling arthropods, standard methods for warming chambers (e.g. soil‐warming cables or infrared heaters applied to relatively small areas) were inappropriate and new technological approaches using hydronic heating and forced air movement were developed. 3. We monitor population dynamics, species composition, phenology and behaviour of ants and other arthropods occupying these experimental chambers. Microclimatic measurements in each chamber include the following: air temperature (three), soil temperatures (two each in organic and mineral soil), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), relative humidity and soil moisture (one each). In two chambers, we are also measuring soil heat flux, associated soil temperatures at 2 and 6 cm and volumetric water content. To assess the composition, phenology and abundance of arthropod communities within the experiment, we use monthly pitfall trapping and annual Winkler sampling. We also census artificial and natural ant nests to monitor changes in ant colony size and productivity across the temperature treatments. 4. This experiment is a long‐term ecological study that provides opportunities for collaborations across a broad spectrum of ecologists, including those studying biogeochemical, microbial and plant responses to warming. Future studies also may include implementation of multifactorial climate manipulations, examination of interactions across trophic levels and quantification of changes in ecosystem processes. DA - 2011/10// PY - 2011/10// DO - 10.1111/j.2041-210x.2011.00100.x VL - 2 IS - 5 SP - 534-540 SN - 2041-2096 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84866402142&partnerID=MN8TOARS KW - arthropod KW - climate change KW - Formicidae KW - long-term ecological research KW - open-top chamber KW - warming experiment ER - TY - JOUR TI - Forecasting the future of biodiversity: a test of single- and multi-species models for ants in North America AU - Fitzpatrick, Matthew C. AU - Sanders, Nathan J. AU - Ferrier, Simon AU - Longino, John T. AU - Weiser, Michael D. AU - Dunn, Rob T2 - ECOGRAPHY AB - The geographic distributions of many taxonomic groups remain mostly unknown, hindering attempts to investigate the response of the majority of species on Earth to climate change using species distributions models (SDMs). Multi-species models can incorporate data for rare or poorly-sampled species, but their application to forecasting climate change impacts on biodiversity has been limited. Here we compare forecasts of changes in patterns of ant biodiversity in North America derived from ensembles of single-species models to those from a multi-species modeling approach, Generalized Dissimilarity Modeling (GDM). We found that both single- and multi-species models forecasted large changes in ant community composition in relatively warm environments. GDM predicted higher turnover than SDMs and across a larger contiguous area, including the southern third of North America and notably Central America, where the proportion of ants with relatively small ranges is high and where data limitations are most likely to impede the application of SDMs. Differences between approaches were also influenced by assumptions regarding dispersal, with forecasts being more similar if no-dispersal was assumed. When full-dispersal was assumed, SDMs predicted higher turnover in southern Canada than did GDM. Taken together, our results suggest that 1) warm rather than cold regions potentially could experience the greatest changes in ant fauna under climate change and that 2) multi-species models may represent an important complement to SDMs, particularly in analyses involving large numbers of rare or poorly-sampled species. Comparisons of the ability of single- and multi-species models to predict observed changes in community composition are needed in order to draw definitive conclusions regarding their application to investigating climate change impacts on biodiversity. DA - 2011/10// PY - 2011/10// DO - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2011.06653.x VL - 34 IS - 5 SP - 836-847 SN - 1600-0587 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958098554&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER - TY - JOUR TI - The sudden emergence of pathogenicity in insect-fungus symbioses threatens naive forest ecosystems AU - Hulcr, Jiri AU - Dunn, Robert R. T2 - PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AB - Invasive symbioses between wood-boring insects and fungi are emerging as a new and currently uncontrollable threat to forest ecosystems, as well as fruit and timber industries throughout the world. The bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae) constitute the large majority of these pests, and are accompanied by a diverse community of fungal symbionts. Increasingly, some invasive symbioses are shifting from non-pathogenic saprotrophy in native ranges to a prolific tree-killing in invaded ranges, and are causing significant damage. In this paper, we review the current understanding of invasive insect-fungus symbioses. We then ask why some symbioses that evolved as non-pathogenic saprotrophs, turn into major tree-killers in non-native regions. We argue that a purely pathology-centred view of the guild is not sufficient for explaining the lethal encounters between exotic symbionts and naive trees. Instead, we propose several testable hypotheses that, if correct, lead to the conclusion that the sudden emergence of pathogenicity is a new evolutionary phenomenon with global biogeographical dynamics. To date, evidence suggests that virulence of the symbioses in invaded ranges is often triggered when several factors coincide: (i) invasion into territories with naive trees, (ii) the ability of the fungus to either overcome resistance of the naive host or trigger a suicidal over-reaction, and (iii) an 'olfactory mismatch' in the insect whereby a subset of live trees is perceived as dead and suitable for colonization. We suggest that individual cases of tree mortality caused by invasive insect-fungus symbionts should no longer be studied separately, but in a global, biogeographically and phylogenetically explicit comparative framework. DA - 2011/10/7/ PY - 2011/10/7/ DO - 10.1098/rspb.2011.1130 VL - 278 IS - 1720 SP - 2866-2873 SN - 1471-2954 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-80052225898&partnerID=MN8TOARS KW - ambrosia symbiosis KW - emerging pathogens KW - host-pathogen coevolution ER - TY - JOUR TI - Urban areas may serve as habitat and corridors for dry-adapted, heat tolerant species; an example from ants AU - Menke, Sean B. AU - Guenard, Benoit AU - Sexton, Joseph O. AU - Weiser, Michael D. AU - Dunn, Robert R. AU - Silverman, Jules T2 - URBAN ECOSYSTEMS DA - 2011/6// PY - 2011/6// DO - 10.1007/s11252-010-0150-7 VL - 14 IS - 2 SP - 135-163 SN - 1573-1642 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79955054212&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER - TY - JOUR TI - Global diversity in light of climate change: the case of ants AU - Jenkins, Clinton N. AU - Sanders, Nathan J. AU - Andersen, Alan N. AU - Arnan, Xavier AU - Bruehl, Carsten A. AU - Cerda, Xim AU - Ellison, Aaron M. AU - Fisher, Brian L. AU - Fitzpatrick, Matthew C. AU - Gotelli, Nicholas J. AU - Gove, Aaron D. AU - Guenard, Benoit AU - Lattke, John E. AU - Lessard, Jean-Philippe AU - McGlynn, Terrence P. AU - Menke, Sean B. AU - Parr, Catherine L. AU - Philpott, Stacy M. AU - Vasconcelos, Heraldo L. AU - Weiser, Michael D. AU - Dunn, Robert R. T2 - DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS AB - Abstract Aim To use a fine‐grained global model of ant diversity to identify the limits of our knowledge of diversity in the context of climate change. Location Global. Methods We applied generalized linear modelling to a global database of local ant assemblages to predict the species density of ants globally. Predictors evaluated included simple climate variables, combined temperature × precipitation variables, biogeographic region, elevation, and interactions between select variables. Areas of the planet identified as beyond the reliable prediction ability of the model were those having climatic conditions more extreme than what was represented in the ant database. Results Temperature was the most important single predictor of ant species density, and a mix of climatic variables, biogeographic region and interactions between climate and region yielded the best overall model. Broadly, geographic patterns of ant diversity match those of other taxa, with high species density in the wet tropics and in some, but not all, parts of the dry tropics. Uncertainty in model predictions appears to derive from the low amount of standardized sampling of ants in Asia, in Africa and in the most extreme (e.g. hottest) climates. Model residuals increase as a function of temperature. This suggests that our understanding of the drivers of ant diversity at high temperatures is incomplete, especially in hot and arid climates. In other words, our ignorance of how ant diversity relates to environment is greatest in those regions where most species occur – hot climates, both wet and dry. Main conclusions Our results have two important implications. First, temperature is necessary, but not sufficient, to explain fully the patterns of ant diversity. Second, our ability to predict ant diversity is weakest exactly where we need to know the most, the warmest regions of a warming world. This includes significant parts of the tropics and some of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. DA - 2011/7// PY - 2011/7// DO - 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00770.x VL - 17 IS - 4 SP - 652-662 SN - 1472-4642 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958088243&partnerID=MN8TOARS KW - Aridity KW - biodiversity KW - biogeography KW - Formicidae KW - species richness KW - temperature ER - TY - JOUR TI - Cleansing the Superdome: The Paradox of Purity and Post-Katrina Guilt AU - Grano, Daniel A. AU - Zagacki, Kenneth S. T2 - QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SPEECH AB - Abstract The reopening of the New Orleans Superdome after Hurricane Katrina on Monday Night Football dramatized problematic rhetorical, visual, and spatial norms of purification rituals bound up in what Burke calls the paradox of purity. Hurricane Katrina was significant as a visually traumatic event in large part because it signified the ghetto as a rarely discussed remainder of American structural racism and pressed the filthiest visual and territorial residues of marginalized poverty into the national consciousness. In this essay, we argue that a visual paradox of purification—that purifying discourses must “be of the same symbolic substance” as the polluted images that goad them—complicated ritual attempts to both purge and commemorate Katrina evacuees. It is within the paradox of purity that visually grounded purification rituals like the Superdome reopening should be considered for their potential to invite or foreclose public engagement with race and class problems firmly entrenched in Americans’ perceptions of pollution and public territory. Keywords: Paradox of PurityVisual RhetoricRaceKatrinaSport Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their help in the preparation of this essay. Notes 1. Kenneth Burke, Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), 323. 2. Cheree Carlson, “‘You Know It When You See It’: The Rhetorical Hierarchy of Race and Gender in Rhinelander V. Rhinelander,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85 (1999): 112. 3. Carlson, “‘You Know It When You See It,’” 112. 4. Talmadge Wright, Out of Place: Homeless Mobilizations, Subcities, and Contested Landscapes (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 69. 5. Sheryll Cashin, “Katrina: The American Dilemma Redux,” in After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina, ed. David Dante Trout (New York: The New Press, 2006), 32. 6. Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, “Performing Civic Identity: The Iconic Photograph of the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 88 (2002): 366. 7. Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, “Dissent and Emotional Management in a Liberal-Democratic Society: The Kent State Iconic Photograph,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 31 (2001): 7. 8. John Louis Lucaites and Robert Hariman, “Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture,” Rhetoric Review 20 (2001): 37–42. 9. Cashin, “Katrina: The American Dilemma Redux,” 32–33. 10. Talmadge Wright, Out of Place, 40. 11. Greg Dickinson, “The Pleasantville Effect: Nostalgia and the Visual Framing of (White) Suburbia,” Western Journal of Communication 70 (2006): 212–33. 12. Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 224. 13. Dave Zirin, Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007), 16–17. 14. Lynne Duke and Teresa Wiltz, “A Nation's Castaways; Katrina Blew in, and Tossed Up Reminders of Tattered Racial Legacy,” The Washington Post, September 4, 2005. 15. Wendy Koch, “Storm Giving Outpaces That of 9/11, Tsunami,” USA Today, September 7, 2005. 16. Michael A. Fletcher and Richard Morin, “Bush's Approval Rating Drops to New Low in Wake of Storm; He Says Race Didn't Affect Efforts; Blacks in Poll Disagree,” The Washington Post, September 13, 2005; John Harwood, “Katrina Erodes Support in US for Iraq War,” Wall Street Journal Abstracts, September 15, 2005. 17. Susan Page and Maria Puente, “Views of Whites, Blacks Differ Starkly on Disaster,” USA Today, September 13, 2005. 18. Page and Puente, “Views of Whites.” 19. “TIME Poll Results: Hurricane Katrina,” September 10, 2005, http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,1103504,00.html. 20. Michael Butterworth, “Purifying the Body Politic: Steroids, Rafael Palmeiro, and the Rhetorical Cleansing of Major League Baseball,” Western Journal of Communication 72 (2008): 149–50. 21. Daniel A. Grano, “Ritual Disorder and the Contractual Morality of Sport: A Case Study in Race, Class, and Agreement,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 10 (2007): 445–73. Also see Susan Birrell, “Sport as Ritual: Interpretations from Durkheim to Goffman,” Social Forces 60 (1981): 354–76; Michael R. Real, Exploring Media Culture: A Guide (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996). 22. Michael Butterworth, “Ritual in the “Church of Baseball’: Suppressing the Discourse of Democracy after 9/11,” Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 2 (2005): 112. 23. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (New York: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1966), 35–36. 24. Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1945), 302. 25. William H. Rueckert, Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human Relations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 92, 101–2. Also see Burke Language as Symbolic Action, 308–43. 26. Rueckert, Kenneth Burke and the Drama, 102. 27. Burke, Language as Symbolic Action, 343. 28. Mark T. Williams, “Ordering Rhetorical Contexts with Burke's Terms for Order,” Rhetoric Review 24 (2005): 182. 29. Kevin Michael DeLuca and Anne Teresa Demo, “Imaging Nature: Watkins, Yosemite, and the Birth of Environmentalism,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 17 (2000): 257. 30. Lucaites and Hariman, “Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism,” 38. 31. Cara A. Finnegan, “Recognizing Lincoln: Image Vernaculars in Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8 (2005): 34. 32. Slavoj Žižek, “The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape: Reality and Fantasy in New Orleans,” In These Times, October 20, 2005, http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2361/. 33. Ann Gerhart, “‘And Now, We are In Hell,’” The Washington Post, September 1, 2005. 34. Mari Boor Tonn, Valerie A. Endress, and John N. Diamond, “Hunting and Heritage on Trial: A Dramatistic Debate Over Tragedy, Tradition, and Territory,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 79 (1993): 169–70. 35. Shaun R. Treat, “Scapegoating the Big (un)Easy: Melodramatic Individualism as Trained Incapacity in K-ville,” KB Journal 5 (2008): 7. 36. M. Justin Davis and T. Nathaniel French, “Blaming Victims and Survivors: An Analysis of Post-Katrina Print News Coverage,” Southern Communication Journal 73 (2008): 249–51. 37. Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell, “Rape. Murder. Gunfights; For Three Anguished Days the World's Headlines Blared that the Superdome and Convention Center had Descended into Anarchy. But the Truth is that While Conditions Were Squalid for the Thousands Stuck There, Much of the Violence NEVER HAPPENED,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), September 26, 2005. See David Carr, “More Horrible Than Truth: News Reports,” The New York Times, September 19, 2005 and Robert E. Pierre and Ann Gerhart, “News of Pandemonium May Have Slowed Aid; Unsubstantiated Reports of Violence Were Confirmed by Some Officials, Spread by News Media,” The Washington Post, October 5, 2005. 38. Donna Britt, “In Katrina's Wake, Inaccurate Rumors Sullied Victims,” The Washington Post, September 30, 2005; Michelle Roberts, “Reports of Rape, Murder at Katrina Shelters Were Probably Exaggerated, Officials Now Say,” Associated Press Worldstream, September 27, 2005; Mary Foster, “Superdome Survivors: Fear, Heat, Misery, But Most of All the Smell,” The Associated Press State and Local Wire, August 27, 2006; Neil Mackay, Jennifer Johnston, and Alan Crawford, “Chapter One: A City Reduced to Ruins; Anarchy in the USA Special Five-Page Report,” The Sunday Herald, September 4, 2005. 39. David Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion (New York: Routledge, 1995), 55–56, 49–59. 40. Thevenot and Russell, “Rape. Murder.” 41. David Carr, “More Horrible than Truth.” 42. Donna Britt, “In Katrina's Wake.” 43. Thevenot and Russell, “Rape. Murder.” 44. Jack Shafer, “Lost in the Flood: Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?,” Slate, August 31, 2005, http://www.slate.com/id/2124688. 45. See Aaron Kinney, “‘Looting’ or “finding’?: bloggers are outraged over the different captions on photos of blacks and whites in New Orleans,” Salon, September 1, 2005, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/photo_controversy/index.html. 46. Tonn et al., “Hunting and Heritage,” 168, 171. 47. Jeff Ferrell, “Remapping the City: Public Identity, Cultural Space, and Social Justice,” Contemporary Justice Review 4 (2001): 175. 48. Tonn et al., “Hunting and Heritage;” Grano, “Ritual Disorder.” 49. Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), 191. 50. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 183. 51. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 184. 52. Dave Zirin, “Saints and the Superdome,” The Nation, September 28, 2006, http://www.thenation.com/article/saints-and-superdome. 53. Real, Exploring Media Culture: A Guide, 48. 54. Grano, “Ritual Disorder.” 55. Butterworth, “Ritual in the “Church of Baseball,’” 107–29. 56. Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 15, 35. 57. Roach, Cities of the Dead, 60. 58. Jim Corbett, “Saints Tackle New Challenges; Attracting New Sponsorship, Rallying a Shrinking Market Key As Club Looks Beyond Katrina, Record Ticket Sales,” USA Today, June 29, 2006. 59. Corbett, “Saints Tackle New Challenges.” 60. Zirin, Welcome to the Terrordome, 17. 61. Lawrence A. Wenner, “Towards a Dirty Theory of Narrative Ethics: Prolegomenon on Media, Sport and Commodity Value,” International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 3 (2007): 113. While for Mary Douglas dirt is “matter out of place,” Wenner analyzes communicative sports “dirt” in more general terms throughout his work to refer to the process of symbolic transfer and leakage of meanings, logics and tendencies from one text or sphere to another. See: “The Unbearable Dirtiness of Being: On the Commodification of MediaSport and the Need for Ethical Criticism,” Journal of Sports Media 4 (2009): 86–94; “Gendered Sports Dirt: Interrogating Sex and the Single Beer Commercial,” in Examining Identity in Sports Media, ed. Heather L. Hundley and Andrew C. Billings (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2009), 87–108; “Brewing Consumption: Sports Dirt, Mythic Masculinity, and the Ethos of Beer Commercials,” in Sport, Beer, and Gender: Promotional Culture and Contemporary Social Life, ed. Lawrence A. Wenner and Steven J. Jackson (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 121–42; “Super-Cooled Sports Dirt: Moral Contagion and Super Bowl Commercials in the Shadows of Janet Jackson,” Television and New Media 9 (2008): 131–54; and “The Dream Team, Communicative Dirt, and the Marketing of Synergy: USA Basketball and Cross-Merchandising in Television Commercials,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 18 (1994): 27–47. 62. See Wenner, “Super-Cooled Sports Dirt.” 63. Hariman and Lucaites, “Dissent and Emotional Management,” 8. 64. Michael Real, Mass-Mediated Culture (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977), 103. 65. Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers, 1990), 160–61. 66. David Elfin, “San Diego Hands Reigns to Rivers,” The Washington Times, March 17, 2006. 67. Bernie Miklasz, “Drew Brees: Renaissance Man,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 2010. 68. See Daniel A. Grano, “Risky Dispositions: Thick Moral Description and Character-Talk in Sports Culture,” Southern Communication Journal 75 (2010): 255–76; Douglas Hartmann, “Rush Limbaugh, Donovan McNabb, and ‘A Little Social Concern’: Reflections on the Problems of Whiteness in Contemporary American Sport,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 31 (2007): 45–60; Thomas P. Oates, “The Erotic Gaze in the NFL Draft,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 4 (2007): 74–90; Daniel Buffington, “Contesting Race on Sundays: Making Meaning Out of the Rise in the Number of Black Quarterbacks,” Sociology of Sport Journal 21 (2005): 19–37; Andrew Billings, “Depicting the Quarterback in Black and White: A Content Analysis of College and Professional Football Broadcast Commentary,” The Howard Journal of Communications 15 (2004): 201–10; J. R. Woodward, “Professional Football Scouts: An Investigation of Racial Stacking,” Sociology of Sport Journal 21 (2004): 356–75; Douglas Hartmann, “Rethinking the Relationships Between Sport and Race in American Culture: Golden Ghettos and Contested Terrain,” Sociology of Sport Journal 17 (2000): 229–53; John Hoberman, Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997); Laurel R. Davis, “The Articulation of Difference: White Preoccupation With the Question of Racially Linked Genetic Differences Among Athletes,” Sociology of Sport Journal 7 (1990): 179–87; James A. Rada, “Color Blind-Sided: Racial Bias in Network Television's Coverage of Professional Football Games,” The Howard Journal of Communications 7 (1996): 231–40; Audrey J. Murrell and Edward M. Curtis, “Causal Attributions of Performance for Black and White Quarterbacks in the NFL: A Look at the Sports Pages,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 18 (1994): 224–33;; and John M. Hoberman, Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport (New York: The Free Press, 1992). 69. Grano, “Risky Dispositions.” 70. Ohm Young, “Dome Rebirth a Super Sight. Saints March Home to Win,” Daily News (New York), September 26, 2006. 71. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 175. Emphasis added. 72. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 173. 73. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 191. 74. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 190. 75. Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed, 184. 76. Les Carpenter, “Behind its team, the city rallies,” The Washington Post, February 7, 2010. 77. Victoria J. Gallagher, “Black Power in Berkeley: Postmodern Constructions in the Rhetoric of Stokely Carmichael, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 87 (2001): 147, emphasis original. 78. Gallagher, “Black Power in Berkeley,” 147. 79. Charles Ogletree Jr., “Introduction,” in After the Storm xxii. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDaniel A. Grano Daniel A. Grano is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Kenneth S. Zagacki Kenneth S. Zagacki is a Professor in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// DO - 10.1080/00335630.2011.560175 VL - 97 IS - 2 SP - 201-223 SN - 1479-5779 KW - Paradox of Purity KW - Visual Rhetoric KW - Race KW - Katrina KW - Sport ER - TY - JOUR TI - The gravity of life AU - Dunn, R. T2 - Scientist DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// VL - 25 IS - 6 SP - 78-78 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Counting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): biodiversity sampling and statistical analysis for myrmecologists AU - Gotelli, N. J. AU - Ellison, A. M. AU - Dunn, R. R. AU - Sanders, N. J. T2 - Myrmecological News DA - 2011/// PY - 2011/// VL - 15 SP - 13-19 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Elevational gradients in phylogenetic structure of ant communities reveal the interplay of biotic and abiotic constraints on diversity AU - Machac, Antonin AU - Janda, Milan AU - Dunn, Robert R. AU - Sanders, Nathan J. T2 - ECOGRAPHY AB - A central focus of ecology and biogeography is to determine the factors that govern spatial variation in biodiversity. Here, we examined patterns of ant diversity along climatic gradients in three temperate montane systems: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (USA), Chiricahua Mountains (USA), and Vorarlberg (Austria). To identify the factors which potentially shape these elevational diversity gradients, we analyzed patterns of community phylogenetic structure (i.e. the evolutionary relationships among species coexisting in local communities). We found that species at low-elevation sites tended to be evenly dispersed across phylogeny, suggesting that these communities are structured by interspecific competition. In contrast, species occurring at high-elevation sites tended to be more closely related than expected by chance, implying that these communities are structured primarily by environmental filtering caused by low temperatures. Taken together, the results of our study highlight the potential role of niche constraints, environmental temperature, and competition in shaping broad-scale diversity gradients. We conclude that phylogenetic structure indeed accounts for some variation in species density, yet it does not entirely explain why temperature and species density are correlated. DA - 2011/6// PY - 2011/6// DO - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2010.06629.x VL - 34 IS - 3 SP - 364-371 SN - 1600-0587 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79957543751&partnerID=MN8TOARS ER -