Coccidioidomycosis (valley fever) is a disease endemic to arid regions in the western hemisphere, and is caused by the soil-dwelling fungus Coccidioides immitis (C. immitis). In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding valley fever and C. immitis as related to climatic conditions and habitat requirements. Previous research shows there is a relationship betw...

There is no single requirement more crucial to the rational and sustainable control of helminth parasites in grazing animals than a comprehensive knowledge of the epidemiology of the parasite as it interacts with the host in a specific climatic, management and production environment. In its absence, anthelmintic treatment is either given suppressively, which provokes resistance, or therapeutica...

We present a simple method of probabilistic risk analysis for ecosystems. The only requirements are time series—modelled or measured—of environment and ecosystem variables. Risk is defined as the product of hazard probability and ecosystem vulnerability. Vulnerability is the expected difference in ecosystem performance between years with and without hazardous conditions. We show an application ...

BACKGROUND Although some authors have suggested that there is some seasonal periodicity of hemoptysis, or relation to respiratory tract infections, the association of influenza or climatic parameters with hemoptysis has been poorly investigated. Our aim was to describe the relationship between influenza and climatic parameters with severe hemoptysis that required bronchial artery embolization (...

Organisms face continual fluctuations in global climatic processes to which they must adapt or perish. Considering that many species are key habitat formers and energy producers, such responses to climate change can have significant population, community and even ecosystem consequences. Paleo-records of ecosystem responses to past environmental variability have proven invaluable for studying im...

Most studies analyzing the effects of global warming on wild populations focus on gradual temperature changes, yet it is also important to understand the impact of extreme climatic events. Here we studied the effect of two cold spells (January 1985 and February 2012) on the energetics of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) in the Camargue (southern France). To understand the cause of obse...

Several hypotheses are advanced for resource relationships among planktonic diatoms in African freshwater lakes that are consistent with the light and nutrient conditions of the lakes and the extant and fossil distributions of the diatom species in them. The hypotheses are all testable and are potentially powerful tools for interpreting past climatic conditions. A ranking is proposed along a Si...

BACKGROUND Chikungunya was, from the European perspective, considered to be a travel-related tropical mosquito-borne disease prior to the first European outbreak in Northern Italy in 2007. This was followed by cases of autochthonous transmission reported in South-eastern France in 2010. Both events occurred after the introduction, establishment and expansion of the Chikungunya-competent and hig...

Murine rodents are excellent models for study of adaptive radiations and speciation. Brown Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) are successful global colonizers and the contributions of their domesticated laboratory strains to biomedical research are well established. To identify nucleotide-based speciation timing of the rat and genomic information contributing to its colonization capabilities, we a...

On the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), recruitment of the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides occurs in May and June. Every year in June between 2005 and 2016, we recorded recruit density for this barnacle at the same wave-exposed rocky intertidal location on this coast. During these 12 years, mean recruit density was lowest in 2015 (198 recruits dm-2) and highest in 2007 (969 r...