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opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Out of the temperate zone: a phylogenomic test of the biogeographical conservatism hypothesis in a contrarian clade of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Stenammini)

Aim: The standard latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), in which species richness decreases from equator to pole, is a pervasive pattern observed in most organisms. Some lineages, however, exhibit inverse LDGs. Seemingly problematic, documenting and studying contrarian groups can advance understanding of LDGs generally. Here, we identify the ant tribe Stenammini as a contrarian clade and use a historical approach to evaluate alternative hypotheses that might explain the group's atypical diversity pattern. We focus on the biogeographical conservatism hypothesis (BCH) and the diversification rate hypothesis (DRH). Location: Global. Taxon: Ants. Methods: We examined the shape of the LDG in Stenammini by plotting latitudinal midpoints for all described, extant species. We then inferred a genome-scale phylogeny and used the tree to estimate divergence dates and ancestral areas. We also examined diversification rate heterogeneity across the tree and tested for a correlation between rate and latitude. Results: Stenammini has a skewed inverse LDG with a richness peak in the northern temperate zone. Phylogenomic analyses revealed five major clades and several instances of non-monophyly among genera (Goniomma, Aphaenogaster). Stenammini and all its major lineages arose in the northern temperate zone. The tribe originated ~51 Ma during a climatic optimum and then diversified and dispersed southward as global climate cooled. Stenammini invaded the tropics at least seven times, but these events occurred more recently and were not linked with increased diversification. There is evidence for a diversification rate increase in Holarctic Aphaenogaster + Messor, but we found no significant correlation between latitude and diversification rate generally. Main Conclusions: Our results largely support the BCH as an explanation for the inverse latitudinal gradient in Stenammini. The clade originated in the Holarctic and likely became more diverse there due to the combined effects of center-of-origin, time-for-speciation, and niche conservatism, rather than latitudinal differences in diversification rate.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2021View details →

Effects of Attentional Focus on Motor Performance and Physiology in a Slow-Motion Violin Bow-Control Task: Evidence for the Constrained Action Hypothesis in Bowed String Technique

The constrained action hypothesis states that focusing attention on action outcomes rather than body movement improves motor performance. Dexterity of motor control is key to successful music performance, making this a highly relevant topic to music education. We investigated effects of focus of attention (FOA) on motor skill performance and EMG muscle activity in a violin bowing task among experienced and novice upper strings players. Following a pedagogically informed exercise, participants attempted to produce single oscillations of the string at a time under three FOA: internal (on arm movement), external (on sound produced), and somatic (on string resistance). Experienced players’ number of bow slips was significantly reduced under somatic focus relative to internal, although number of successful oscillations was not affected. Triceps electromyographic activity was also significantly lower in somatic compared to internal foci for both expertise groups, consistent with physiological understandings of FOA effects. Participants’ reported thoughts during the experiment provided insight into whether aspects of constrained action may be evident in performers’ conscious thinking. These results provide novel support for the constrained action hypothesis in violin bow control, suggesting a somatic FOA as a promising performance-enhancing strategy for bowed string technique.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Datasets and Code for "Hypothesis Tests with Functional Data for Surface Quality Change Detection in Surface Finishing Processes"

This is the set of data and computer code used for reproducing the results in Jin, Tuo, Tiwari, Bukkapatnam, Aracne-Ruddle, Lighty, Hamza, and Ding, 2022, “Hypothesis tests with functional data for surface quality change detection in surface finishing processes,” IISE Transactions, in press.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Data and models in Support of "Joint and Constrained Inversion as Hypothesis Testing Tools"

The model and data files as well as the plotting and run scripts to reproduce the examples in "Joint and Constrained Inversion as Hypothesis Testing Tools".

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Use of road underpasses by mammals and a monitor lizard in eastern Australia and consideration of the prey-trap hypothesis

Road networks continue to expand globally with predictable effects on ecological systems. Research into the effectiveness of road underpasses and overpasses for wildlife has been concentrated in North America and Europe. In Australia, most studies of underpasses have been of relatively short duration and without reference sites to give context to the measured rates of use. We studied 5–7 road underpasses at two locations in eastern Australia over 2–3 years, comparing camera trap detections of animals in underpasses with those at nearby forest sites. Three species of large macropod (wallabies and kangaroos) were frequently detected in the underpasses, with some underpasses traversed 1–4 times per week, and in many cases exceeded detections in the forest. The lace monitor (Varanus various) was detected in all underpasses, often once per week during spring and summer, and infrequently in the forest. At each location a different small macropod species, including one regionally threatened, showed a higher probability of detection in one underpass compared to several of the forest sites. The vulnerable koala (Phascolartos cinereus) was detected infrequently in underpasses and in the adjoining forest. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) had a high probability of detection in a single underpass. The 'prey-trap hypothesis' postulates that predators will exhibit increased activity at underpasses as a consequence of prey being funnelled. We found the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) had high activity in some underpasses. However, its activity coincided less than expected with the activity of the mammals most at risk to it. Our results provide no consistent support for the 'prey-trap hypothesis'. Instead, our study confirms the generic value of underpasses for a range of medium-large mammals as well as one large reptile. Habitat adjoining underpasses exerts a strong influence on their use and requires greater consideration to maximise underpass use.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Greenery hypothesis: an evolutionary explanation for why presence/absence of green affects humans

A growing body of empirical evidence shows that experiences of nature provide people with psychological benefits (improved cognitive function and mental health). Although our knowledge of the proximate causes of such positive psychological responses of humans to nature has improved, their ultimate (evolutionary) drivers remain poorly understood. Here, we propose a new evolutionary psychological hypothesis – the greenery hypothesis – that integrates recent findings in evolutionary psychiatry with many experimental results that cannot be explained by several hypotheses/theories previously developed. Our proposed hypothesis states that humans have adapted to periodic severe environmental changes (severe drought and re-watering cycles) by establishing both negative and positive psychological responses to the absence or presence of greenery within the landscape as cues to optimize their own behavioral activity. We partially tested several predictions generated from the greenery hypothesis using a multi-country questionnaire survey of approximately 7,000 people, and obtained some supporting evidence. The greenery hypothesis has the potential to yield several insights into the fundamental understanding of the psychological responses of humans to the natural world and it could have important implications for a wide range of related fields, psychiatry, urban planning, biodiversity conservation, and animal welfare.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Data from: Active anemosensing hypothesis: How flying insects could estimate ambient wind direction

Estimating the direction of ambient fluid flow is a crucial step during chemical plume tracking for flying and swimming animals. How animals accomplish this remains an open area of investigation. Recent calcium imaging with tethered flying Drosophila has shown that flies encode the angular direction of multiple sensory modalities in their central complex: orientation, apparent wind (or airspeed) direction, and direction of. Here we describe a general framework for how these three sensory modalities can be integrated over time to provide a continuous estimate of ambient wind direction. After validating our framework using a flying drone, we use simulations to show that ambient wind direction can be most accurately estimated with trajectories characterized by frequent, large magnitude turns. Furthermore, sensory measurements and estimates of their derivatives must be integrated over a period of time that incorporates at least one of these turns. Finally, we discuss approaches that insects might use to simplify the required computations and present a list of testable predictions. Together, our results suggest that ambient flow estimation may be an important driver underlying the zigzagging maneuvers characteristic of plume tracking animals' trajectories.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Data from: The selective advantage of a mast-flowering behavior in Veratrum album subsp. oxysepalum: Implications of the predator satiation hypothesis

Premise: The synchronous highly variable flower or seed production among years within a population– i.e., masting – has been reported in numerous perennial plants. Although ecological advantages of masting are recognized as the enhancement of pollination efficiency and/or escape from predator attack, little is known about the degree of these advantages and the variation in masting behavior among populations of conspecific plants. Methods: We observed flowering ramet density and reproductive success (fruit-set success and herbivorous damage) of a perennial herb, Veratrum album subsp. oxysepalum, across six lowland and six alpine populations in northern Japan during 2–3 years. We then analyzed the relationship between floral density and reproductive success to clarify the ecological significance of mast flowering. Furthermore, flowering intervals of individual plants were estimated by counting annual scars on rhizomes. Results: Mast flowering was observed in most populations, but flowering intervals of individual plants were shorter in the alpine populations compared with the lowland populations. Floral damage by stem borers (dipteran larvae) and seed predation by lepidopteran larvae were intense in the lowland populations. The seed production of individual ramets increased with higher floral density owing to the effective avoidance of floral-stem damage and seed predation. Although stem borers were absent in alpine habitat, seed predation decreased with higher floral density also in the alpine populations. Pollination success was independent of floral density in both the alpine and lowland populations. Conclusions: These results strongly support the predator satiation hypothesis for the mast flowering behavior in this species.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Tracks for Egyptian fruit bats included in the field manipulation for testing the use of the communal roost as an information center hypothesis

According to the Information Centre Hypothesis (ICH), colonial species use social information in roosts to locate ephemeral resources. Validating the ICH necessitates showing that uninformed individuals follow informed ones to the new resource. However, the following behavior may not be essential when not all resources are ephemeral. For instance, Egyptian fruit bats forage on spatially predictable trees, but some bear fruit at unpredictable times. These circumstances suggest an alternative ICH pathway in which bats learn when fruits emerge from social cues in the roost but then use spatial memory to locate them without following conspecifics. Here, using a unique field manipulation and high-frequency tracking data, we test for this alternative pathway: We introduced bats smeared with the fruit odor of the unpredictably fruiting Ficus sycomorus trees to the roost, when they bore no fruits, and then tracked the movement of conspecifics exposed to the manipulated social cue. As predicted, bats visited the F. sycomorus trees with significantly higher probabilities than during routine foraging trips (of >200 bats). Our results show how the integration of spatial memory and social cues leads to efficient resource tracking and highlight the value of using large movement datasets and field experiments in behavioral ecology.

opencc-zeroMay 2024View details →

Data from: Interweaving recurring slope lineae on Mars: Do they support a wet hypothesis?

Included in these supplementary materials is a manuscript citation and manuscript keywords for the manuscript "Interweaving Recurring Slope Lineae on Mars: Do They Support a Wet Hypothesis?", as submitted to the scientific journal Icarus. Also included are two JP2 image files, a digital terrain model (DTM) file, two shapefiles, and forty-eight CSV files that all collectively detail data relating to channel counts and sinuosity measurements for Martian hillslope features known as recurring slope lineae, as manually-identified within Raga Crater in the southern mid-latitudes of Mars.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

Fungi and deadwood diversity: A test of the area-heterogeneity trade-off hypothesis

Environmental heterogeneity is one of the most fundamental drivers of species diversity. For decades, ecologists have suggested that heterogeneity-diversity relationships are generally positive. But today, a greater variety of heterogeneity-diversity relationships is discussed. In this study, we contrasted two hypotheses for wood-inhabiting fungi: The classical heterogeneity-diversity hypothesis, that predicts positive relationships due to an increase in niche dimensionality with increasing heterogeneity. And the more recently stated area-heterogeneity trade-off hypothesis, that predicts a unimodal pattern due to an inherent trade-off between the number of occupied niches and the effective area per species. It allows positive and negative relationships only as special cases. We sampled 3,715 deadwood objects on 135 plots along a forest structure gradient in the Black Forest, Germany, and recorded 284 wood-inhabiting fungal species. To assess heterogeneity of deadwood structures, we calculated two multidimensional structural diversity indices: Structural richness was used as a measure of available niche space, and structural divergence as a measure of multivariate variance within that niche space. Those indices were then related to species richness estimates for rare, common, and dominant species, using the framework of Hill numbers. We found a linear, positive effect of structural richness and a unimodal effect for structural divergence on estimated species diversity. Structural richness, but not structural divergence was strongly correlated with the number of sampled deadwood objects. No clear differences between the responses of rare, common, and dominant species to the two heterogeneity gradients were found. We also estimated the mean abundance as proxy for mean population size, which decreased significantly with structural richness, but was non-significantly related to structural divergence. Synthesis: In general, the results of this study suggest a unimodal heterogeneity-diversity relationship for deadwood-inhabiting fungi, and are thereby in line with the area-heterogeneity trade-off hypothesis. Thus, the negative effect of heterogeneity should lead to lower species richness and higher risk of stochastic extinctions at high levels of heterogeneity. However, as deadwood amount and deadwood diversity are often strongly correlated, we argue that the positive effect of resource availability on species richness may mask the negative effect of structural heterogeneity in some cases.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2024View details →

A Marble and a Photon: Single Speed Hypothesis

This study explores the concept of velocity within the framework of the physical interpretation of acceleration and deceleration for moving objects in space. A thought experiment involving a marble and a photon is employed to introduce the hypothesis that all objects in space inherently travel at the speed of light when in motion. Through a series of systematically structured thought experiments, this hypothesis and related conclusions are examined and substantiated. Newton’s first law of motion serves as the foundation for these scenarios, allowing for logical conclusions to be derived. The methodology prioritizes logical reasoning over detailed mathematical formulations to provide a more accessible presentation.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Resolving a phylogenetic hypothesis for parrots: implications from systematics to conservation

Advances in sequencing technology and phylogenetics have revolutionised avian biology by providing an evolutionary framework for studying natural groupings. In the parrots (Psittaciformes), DNA-based studies have led to a reclassification of clades, yet substantial gaps remain in the data gleaned from genetic information. Here we provide an overview of published genetic data of parrots, characterise sampling depth across the phylogeny, and evaluate support for existing systematic treatments. We inferred a concatenated tree with 307 species from a 30-gene supermatrix. We recovered well-supported relationships among recently proposed clades. Taxonomic groups were more stable towards the base of the tree and increased sampling will be required to clarify relationships at the tips, particularly below the generic level. Only a third of species have been sampled intraspecifically in population genetic or phylogeographic surveys. Intraspecific sampling has not been geographically or phylogenetically even across Psittaciformes, especially poor in the cockatoos, Southeast Asia, and parts of Australo-Papua. Threatened species are poorly sampled in the Neotropics. We highlight where effort should be focused to improve sampling based on geography and conservation status. In sum, phylogenetic relationships among the major parrot clades are robust, but relationships within and between genera and species provide opportunities for future investigations.

Figure 43 in Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class

Figure 43. Distribution of Chordeumatida in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Figure 21 in Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class

Figure 21. Distribution of Polyzoniida in Europe and the Middle East.

Figure 18 in Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class

Figure 18. Distribution of Platydesmida in North America/the Western Hemisphere.

Figure 17 in Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class

Figure 17. Distribution of the Order Platydesmida.

Figure 26 in Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class

Figure 26. Distribution of the Order Julida.

opencc-zeroAug 2021View details →

Methodological advances for hypothesis‐driven ethnobiology

Ethnobiology as a discipline has evolved recently to increasingly embrace theory-inspired and hypothesis driven approaches to study why and how local people choose plants and animals they interact with and use for their livelihood. However, testing complex hypotheses or a network of ethnobiological hypotheses is challenging, particularly for datasets with non-independent observations due to species phylogenetic relatedness or socio-relational links between participants. Further, to fully account for the dynamics of local ecological knowledge, it is important to account for the spatially explicit distribution of knowledge, the changes in knowledge, knowledge transmission and use. To promote the use of advanced statistical modeling approaches that address these limitations, we synthesize methodological advances for hypothesis-driven research in ethnobiology while highlighting the need for more figures than tables and more tables than text in ethnobiological literature. We present the ethnobiologicalmotivations for conducting generalized linear mixed-effect modeling, structural equation modeling, phylogenetic generalized least squares, social network analysis, species distribution modeling, and predictive modeling. For each element of the proposed ethnobiologists quantitative toolbox, we present practical applications along with script for a widespread implementation. Because these statistical modeling approaches are rarely taught in most ethnobiological programs but are essential for careers in academia or industry, it is critical to promote specialized workshops organized during annual professional meetings and focused on these advanced methods. By embracing these quantitative modeling techniques without sacrificing qualitative approaches which provide essential context, ethnobiology will further progress toward an expansive interaction with other disciplines.