Collective behaviour can stabilize ecosystems

A snapshot of climate drivers and temporal variation of Ixodes ovatus abundance from a giant panda living in the wild

Ticks and tick-borne diseases have negative impacts on the health of wild animals including endangered and vulnerable species. The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), a vulnerable and iconic flagship species, is threatened by tick infestation as well. Not only can ticks cause anemia and immunosuppression in the giant panda, but also bacterial and viral diseases. However, previous studies regarding tick infestation on giant pandas were limited in scope as case reports from sick or dead animals. In this study, an investigation focusing on the tick infestation of a reintroduced giant panda at the Daxiangling Reintroduction Base in Sichuan, China was conducted. Ticks were routinely collected and identified from the ears of the giant panda from March to September in 2021. A linear model was used to test the correlation between tick abundance and climate factors. All ticks were identified as Ixodes ovatus. Tick abundance was significantly different among months. Results from the linear model showed temperature positively correlated to tick abundance, while air pressure had a negative correlation with tick abundance. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first reported investigation of tick species and abundance on a healthy giant panda living in the natural environment, and provides important information for the conservation of giant pandas and other species sharing the same habitat.

Predicting the impacts of chemical pollutants on animal groups

Chemical pollution is among the fastest-growing agents of global change. Synthetic chemicals with diverse modes-of-action are being detected in the tissues of wildlife and pervade entire food webs. Although such pollutants can elicit a range of sublethal effects on individual organisms, research on how chemical pollutants affect animal groups is severely lacking. Here we synthesise research from two related, but largely segregated fields - ecotoxicology and behavioural ecology - to examine pathways by which chemical contaminants could disrupt processes that govern the emergence, self-organisation, and collective function of animal groups. Our review provides a roadmap for prioritising the study of chemical pollutants within the context of sociality and highlights important methodological advancements for future research.

Big or small, patchy all: Resolution of marine plankton patch structure at micro- to submesoscales for 36 taxa

Despite the ecological importance of microscale (0.01–1 meter) and fine-scale (1 to hundreds of meters) plankton patchiness, the dimensions and taxonomic identity of patches in the ocean are nearly unknown. We used underwater imaging to identify the position, horizontal length scale, and density of taxa-specific patches of 32 million organisms representing 36 taxa (200 micrometers to 20 centimeters) in the continental and oceanic environments of a subtropical, western boundary current. Patches were the most frequent in shallow, continental waters. For multiple taxa, patch count varied parabolically with background density. Taxa-specific patch length and organism size exhibited negative size scaling relationships. Organism size explained 21 to 30% of the variance in patch length. The dominant length scale was phylogenetically random and <100 meters for 64% of taxa. The predominance of micro- and fine-scale patches among a diverse suite of plankton suggests social and coactive processes may contribute to patch formation.