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...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the monthly variation in the airborne (1→3)-β-D-glucan level throughout one year and its relationship with climatic factors (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, hours of daylight, cloud cover, and pollen counts). METHODS A total of 106 samples were collected using a two-stage cyclone sampler at five outdoor sampling locations (on top of 5 university buildings). ...

The application of species distribution models (SDMs) in ecology and conservation biology is increasing and assuming an important role, mainly because they can be used to hindcast past and predict current and future species distributions. However, the accuracy of SDMs depends on the quality of the data and on appropriate theoretical frameworks. In this study, comprehensive data on the current d...

Recent computer models of landform evolution have focused on surface processes of river networks and hillslopes (e.g., Ahnert, 1976; Kirkby, 1986; Willgoose et al., 1991a, b; Koltermann and Gorelick, 1992; Howard, 1994; Howard et al., 1994; Smith et al., 1997). Most of these models are based on complicated differential equations that are difficult to solve. Chase (1992) developed a cellular aut...

We tested for the occurrence of Bergmann's rule, the pattern of increasing body size with latitude, and Rapoport's rule, the positive relationship between geographical range size and latitude, in 34 lineages of Liolaemus lizards that occupy arid regions of the Andean foothills. We tested the climatic-variability hypothesis (CVH) by examining the relationship between thermal tolerance breadth an...