Ivory poachers and poison: drivers of Africa's declining vulture populations

Trends in North American Vulture Populations

In recent years, interactions between vultures and human activities have noticeably increased. These interactions include nuisance roosts, damage to homes and businesses, livestock depredation, and collisions with aircraft. One major factor contributing to the upsurge in vulture problems is higher numbers of these birds. Both turkey vultures and black vultures appear to be experiencing major po...

The Puzzle of Declining Amphibian Populations

Perhaps our fascination with frogs and other amphibians starts in childhood, with the discovery of tadpoles and the observation of their metamorphosis. But for many adults today, interest stems more from observation of another type of change: amphibian populations in many parts of the world seem to be dwindling, and some groups are disappearing from their native habitats completely. The loss--f...

wtf genes are prolific dual poison-antidote meiotic drivers

Meiotic drivers are selfish genes that bias their transmission into gametes, defying Mendelian inheritance. Despite the significant impact of these genomic parasites on evolution and infertility, few meiotic drive loci have been identified or mechanistically characterized. Here, we demonstrate a complex landscape of meiotic drive genes on chromosome 3 of the fission yeasts Schizosaccharomyces k...

Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.

Surplus production dynamics in declining and recovering fish populations

Surplus production rates predicted by simple biomass dynamics models are generally expected to follow a simple dome-shaped pattern as population size changes and to show similar trajectories during population decline and recovery. Age-structured models, however, predict substantially lower surplus production rates during population recovery than during decline because of reduced mean fecundity,...