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2020

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Articles 841 - 870 of 1123

Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

A “Halfway House” For Improving Captive Welfare, Phyllis C. Lee, W. Keith Lindsay Jan 2020

A “Halfway House” For Improving Captive Welfare, Phyllis C. Lee, W. Keith Lindsay

Animal Sentience

It is certainly time to aim for higher quality management strategies for Thailand’s captive elephants, and to engage with sustainable livelihoods for traditional mahouts. Baker & Winkler’s proposal to rewild Thai elephants by placing them under the guardianship of Karen mahouts is recognized as not “wild” since it remains a form of management requiring elephants to live under the control of human caregivers. We applaud the positive welfare aims of this proposal; however, we caution that few of the long-term consequences for elephants or habitats can be known, and further considerations of elephant population dynamics and forest ecosystems are required …

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Rewilding And Domestication: Clarifying Terminology, Catia Correia-Caeiro Jan 2020

Rewilding And Domestication: Clarifying Terminology, Catia Correia-Caeiro

Animal Sentience

Baker & Winkler (B&W) describe the state of Asian elephant conservation, raising unique issues, and proposing a direction based on rewilding. The long history and socio-biology of elephants and humans has some parallels with the domestication of dogs (and other species). However, markers of domestication seem absent from elephants. The proper use of terms such as “wild” and “domestic” is crucial in defining the best conservation strategies, and, more important, in attending to the welfare needs of individuals, which can differ between wild and domestic animals. B&W’s target article represents an important starting point for discussion around elephant conservation, but …

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Elephants And Pandemics, Adrian Treves Jan 2020

Elephants And Pandemics, Adrian Treves

Animal Sentience

Baker & Winkler’s critique of Asian elephant tourism and conservation in Thailand has convinced me that this was “an industry with too many victims.” Yet I fear that B&W’s proposed remedy of returning to past elephant husbandry by Karen hill-peoples has little likelihood of improving the lives of the elephants for long. Who can predict whether the Karen will live up to this hope? B&W advocate for the Karen, but not for “an abolitionist stance on elephant-human relationships.” In my view, whether we discuss elephants or the wild mammals that carry SARS-CoV-2, abolition of many human uses of animals is …

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Global Risks Of Intensive Animal Farming And The Wildlife Trade, Deborah Cao Jan 2020

Global Risks Of Intensive Animal Farming And The Wildlife Trade, Deborah Cao

Animal Sentience

This commentary discusses two issues highlighted by Wiebers & Feigin in the context of the current and future global health crisis: the wildlife trade and factory farming. Both are instances of globalized animal cruelty – in China as well as worldwide -- that require global solutions for the well-being of both humans and nonhumans.

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Innovation In Meat Production: A Problem And An Opportunity, Christopher J. Bryant Jan 2020

Innovation In Meat Production: A Problem And An Opportunity, Christopher J. Bryant

Animal Sentience

Innovation in meat production has enabled modern humans to inflict far greater harm on animals, the environment, and public health than was possible just a few decades ago. Wiebers & Feigin aptly express the urgency with which these issues must be addressed. Those advocating for animals on moral grounds face resistance from omnivores citing taste, price and convenience. Further innovation in meat production (plant-based and cultured meat) will enable us to preserve the experience of eating meat whilst phasing out the many problems caused by industrial animal farming.

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Harm, Earth Jurisprudence And Human/Nonhuman Relationships, Tanya Wyatt Jan 2020

Harm, Earth Jurisprudence And Human/Nonhuman Relationships, Tanya Wyatt

Animal Sentience

To prevent the next pandemic and to protect the environment and non-human animals, there needs to be a clear definition of harm and a legal system grounded in Earth Jurisprudence. Drawing on evolutionary principles to redefine harm and to radically alter the legal system to be Earth-centred will help ensure that harmful actions like certain wildlife trade, wildlife trafficking, and intensive farming do not threaten the survival of any life.

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Wildlife Health Systems, Lee Skerratt Jan 2020

Wildlife Health Systems, Lee Skerratt

Animal Sentience

Wildlife health systems aim to ensure that all animal life is healthy and resilient. They protect biodiversity and ecosystem services and ensure that the risk of spillover of pathogens is mitigated. These systems are flexible, multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial. They can manage a variety of threats to life that arise in different communities and cultures. Very small investments are required to ensure that wildlife health systems function effectively.

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Covid-19, Evolution, Brains And Psychology, Frederick Toates Jan 2020

Covid-19, Evolution, Brains And Psychology, Frederick Toates

Animal Sentience

Attention needs to be directed to the processes that control behavior in humans and the adaptive problems that they solved in our early evolutionary environment. The evolutionary mismatch between the current environment and the human brain can yield important insights into the problems that beset us in the context of environmental degradation and nonhuman animal welfare.

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Re-Engage With The World For Global Health And Animal Welfare, Bradley J. Bergstrom Jan 2020

Re-Engage With The World For Global Health And Animal Welfare, Bradley J. Bergstrom

Animal Sentience

Wiebers & Feigin (2020) make a strong argument for measures that would limit future zoonoses, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by closing live-animal markets, changing our habits of food consumption and production, and reducing habitat destruction. These would help human health, animal welfare, and conservation of at-risk wildlife all at the same time. China’s command-and-control government can accomplish some of these things by edict, but slower-to-act western democracies play a surprisingly large role in these global problems by the power of their consumerism, including the illicit wildlife trade. We citizens need to insist that our government use all of its …

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Thinking Longer, Looking Deeper, Ronnie Z. Hawkins Jan 2020

Thinking Longer, Looking Deeper, Ronnie Z. Hawkins

Animal Sentience

We need to situate the present crisis within the larger context of what we humans have done to the nonhuman forms of life with which we evolved, taking a longer view of our own evolutionary origins and a deeper look at what might be a more appropriate role for our species to play within the Biosphere.

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Bridging The Empathy Gap For Invertebrates, John M. Marzluff Jan 2020

Bridging The Empathy Gap For Invertebrates, John M. Marzluff

Animal Sentience

The actions of sentient vertebrates command our attention and inform our morality. Mikhalevich & Powell (2020) (M&P) argue that similar activities in a wide range of invertebrates with central nervous systems should do likewise. However, humans most readily empathize with creatures we recognize as similar in behavior, physiology, or appearance to ourselves. Helping humanity overcome this bias is a significant challenge for those who study invertebrates. Until this empathy gap is bridged, I believe few people and the policies they craft will afford invertebrates the moral standing that M&P argue they deserve. Therefore, I suggest those interested in raising appreciation …

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Affective Sentience And Moral Protection, Russell Powell, Irina Mikhalevich Jan 2020

Affective Sentience And Moral Protection, Russell Powell, Irina Mikhalevich

Animal Sentience

We have structured our response according to five questions arising from the commentaries: (i) What is sentience? (ii) Is sentience a necessary or sufficient condition for moral standing? (iii) What methods should guide comparative cognitive research in general, and specifically in studying invertebrates? (iv) How should we balance scientific uncertainty and moral risk? (v) What practical strategies can help reduce biases and morally dismissive attitudes toward invertebrates?

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Invertebrate Welfare In The Wild, Asher Soryl Jan 2020

Invertebrate Welfare In The Wild, Asher Soryl

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell argue that certain cognitive-affective biases might distort people’s consideration of invertebrate minds and that the moral risks of false negatives in sentience research deserve greater consideration under precautionary frameworks. In this commentary, I draw comparisons between biases that concern wild animals and conditions in nature, arguing that the moral risks of disregarding the possible mental welfare of invertebrates are compounded by facts about their lives in the wild.

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Do Arthropods Respond To Noxious Stimuli Purely By Reflex?, Robert W. Elwood Jan 2020

Do Arthropods Respond To Noxious Stimuli Purely By Reflex?, Robert W. Elwood

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell (2020) argue that it is wrong to dismiss the idea of sentience in invertebrates. Here, I expand on the evidence for crustaceans responding to noxious stimuli in ways that are not explained by mere reflexes, and that are consistent with pain. I consider the idea that male praying mantids must not feel pain because they may continue to mate whilst being consumed by the female. I finish with thoughts about the idea that because robots may be constructed to act as if they experience pain, the argument that animals might experience pain is diminished.

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Sentience In Evolutionary Context, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg Jan 2020

Sentience In Evolutionary Context, Jon Mallatt, Todd E. Feinberg

Animal Sentience

We appreciate the goals of Mikhalevich & Powell (M&P) and largely agree with their conclusions but we differ on some of their definitions and terms. Affects (emotional feelings) should be part of sentience. Although the evidence presented for insect sentience is strong, we list some of the counterevidence that should be considered. Our own research supports M&P’s choice of arthropods, cephalopods, and vertebrates as the only sentient organisms with moral status.

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Relationship Between Cognition And Moral Status Needs Overhaul, Carrie Figdor Jan 2020

Relationship Between Cognition And Moral Status Needs Overhaul, Carrie Figdor

Animal Sentience

I commend Mikhalevich & Powell for extending the discussion of cognition and its relation to moral status with their well researched and argued target article on invertebrate cognition. I have two small criticisms: that the scala naturae still retains its appeal to some in biology as well as psychology, and that drawing the line at invertebrates requires a bit more defense given the larger comparative cognitive-scientific context.

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Insect Sentience And The Rise Of A New Inclusive Ethics, David Baracchi, Luigi Baciadonna Jan 2020

Insect Sentience And The Rise Of A New Inclusive Ethics, David Baracchi, Luigi Baciadonna

Animal Sentience

Welfare protections for vertebrates are grounded in the belief that vertebrates are sentient and capable of feeling whereas invertebrates are not. We agree with Mikhalevich & Powell that the exclusion of small-brained invertebrates from bioethics is not warranted by the current state of the scientific evidence. The choice to promote protection for certain invertebrates should be based on the Animal Sentience Precautionary Principle (ASPP). This principle should not prevent us from conducting experimental research with non-human animals to advance knowledge. However, we believe that it is important to outline practical guidelines to manage the wellbeing of invertebrates, while accumulating further …

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Ethical Considerations For Invertebrates, Scarlett R. Howard, Matthew R.E. Symonds Jan 2020

Ethical Considerations For Invertebrates, Scarlett R. Howard, Matthew R.E. Symonds

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell (2020) have built on the discussion about which species deserve inclusion in animal ethics and welfare considerations. Here, we raise questions concerning the assessment criteria. We ask how to assess different species for their ability to fulfill the criteria, which criteria are most important, how we quantify them (absolute or on a continuum), and how non-animals such as fungi and plants fit into this paradigm.

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Conventional Science Will Not Do Justice To Nonhuman Interests: A Fresh Approach Is Required, Becca Franks, Christine Webb, Monica Gagliano, Barbara Smuts Jan 2020

Conventional Science Will Not Do Justice To Nonhuman Interests: A Fresh Approach Is Required, Becca Franks, Christine Webb, Monica Gagliano, Barbara Smuts

Animal Sentience

Treves et al. (2019) make a convincing case that conservation efforts need to go beyond an anthropocentric worldview. Implementing that vision, however, will require human advocates to represent nonhuman interests. Where will the knowledge of those interests come from? How can humans know what is in the best interest of another animal, a plant, or an ecosystem? We discuss how the values embedded in current scientific practices may be ill-suited to representing nonhuman interests and we offer some ideas for correcting these shortcomings.

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Preserving Nature For The Benefit Of All Sentient Individuals, Eze Paez Jan 2020

Preserving Nature For The Benefit Of All Sentient Individuals, Eze Paez

Animal Sentience

I agree with Treves et al.’s proposal for a preservation ethics based on the principle that nonhuman well-being is a matter of justice and compassion. In this commentary, I advance two objections. First, only sentient beings, rather than all life, belong in the moral community. Second, given that nature is probably harmful overall for sentient individuals, preserving it for the benefit of future human and nonhuman generations requires us to modify it as far as practicable.

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The Wholeness Of Nature, Marthe Kiley-Worthington Jan 2020

The Wholeness Of Nature, Marthe Kiley-Worthington

Animal Sentience

The target article outlines various positions on conservation and preservation but ignores practical considerations of management since there is no wild habitat left. Population controls, either human or nonhuman mammals, are not discussed. The suggestions for legal changes are vague and will require much more thinking about how to integrate animal welfare with wildlife conservation concerns. “Freedoms” as outlined in the human bill of rights might help with decision making for improving animal welfare. Other commentators have made anthropocentric judgements concerning animal welfare, ignoring the importance of developing other ways of seeing and understanding the “multiplicity within unity,” combining empirical …

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Game Theory And Artificial Intelligence In Just Preservation, David L. Dowe, Nader Chmait Jan 2020

Game Theory And Artificial Intelligence In Just Preservation, David L. Dowe, Nader Chmait

Animal Sentience

We humans can show presumption, arrogance and many dubious traits. By virtue of being land-dwelling, dexterous, relatively intelligent, and having good communication hardware and (good) fortune, we have for recent millennia largely had dominion of our planet. Yet humans often do not treat themselves (let alone other species) particularly well. Treves et al.’s idea of a multispecies justice system — not “prioritizing humans” but “finding practical ways to work within human systems” — invites consideration.

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Conflicts And Triage, Kate E. Lynch, Daniel T. Blumstein Jan 2020

Conflicts And Triage, Kate E. Lynch, Daniel T. Blumstein

Animal Sentience

To represent diverse interests successfully, a strategy for dealing with conflicts is needed. We discuss an approach to maximizing the interests of the greatest number of individuals, present and future.

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Just Preservation, Trusteeship And Multispecies Justice, Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Adrian Treves, William Lynn Jan 2020

Just Preservation, Trusteeship And Multispecies Justice, Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Adrian Treves, William Lynn

Animal Sentience

We are grateful to all the commentators who engaged with our target article. Some commentators have offered important insights into our proposed design and methods for legally intervening on behalf of futurity. Others have focused on theoretical considerations central to our proposal for multispecies justice and trusteeship. All have inspired modifications and further elaboration of our initial proposal. In this Response, we engage with the commentaries, integrating their suggestions, striving for convergence and complementarity, but also discussing points of divergence with our proposed framework where necessary. There is substantial overlap in the points of view of the three co-authors, but …

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Evolutionary Determinism And Convergence Associated With Water Column Transitions In Marine Fishes, Melissa Rincon-Sandoval, Emmanuelle Duarte-Ribeiro, Aaron M. Davis, Aintzane Santaquiteria, Lily C. Hughes, Carole C. Baldwin, Luisángely Soto-Torres, Arturo Acero P., H.J. Walker Jr, Kent E. Carpenter, Marcus Sheaves, Guillermo Orti, Dahiana Arcila, Ricardo Betancur-R. Jan 2020

Evolutionary Determinism And Convergence Associated With Water Column Transitions In Marine Fishes, Melissa Rincon-Sandoval, Emmanuelle Duarte-Ribeiro, Aaron M. Davis, Aintzane Santaquiteria, Lily C. Hughes, Carole C. Baldwin, Luisángely Soto-Torres, Arturo Acero P., H.J. Walker Jr, Kent E. Carpenter, Marcus Sheaves, Guillermo Orti, Dahiana Arcila, Ricardo Betancur-R.

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Repeatable, convergent outcomes are prima facie evidence for determinism in evolutionary processes. Among fishes, well-known examples include microevolutionary habitat transitions into the water column, where freshwater populations (e.g., sticklebacks, cichlids, and whitefishes) recurrently diverge toward slender-bodied pelagic forms and deep-bodied benthic forms. However, the consequences of such processes at deeper macroevolutionary scales in the marine environment are less clear. We applied a phylogenomics-based integrative, comparative approach to test hypotheses about the scope and strength of convergence in a marine fish clade with a worldwide distribution (snappers and fusiliers, family Lutjanidae) featuring multiple water-column transitions over the past 45 million years. …

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Small-Scale Variability In Carbon Isotope Ratios Of Microphytobenthos And Dissolved Inorganic Carbon In A Northern Gulf Of Mexico Salt Marsh, Trinity Curry, Jeffrey Krause, Ronald Baker Jan 2020

Small-Scale Variability In Carbon Isotope Ratios Of Microphytobenthos And Dissolved Inorganic Carbon In A Northern Gulf Of Mexico Salt Marsh, Trinity Curry, Jeffrey Krause, Ronald Baker

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.

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An Assessment Of Convergence In The Feeding Morphology Of Xiphactinus Audax And Megalops Atlanticus Using Landmark-Based Geometric Morphometrics, Edward Chase Shelburne Jan 2020

An Assessment Of Convergence In The Feeding Morphology Of Xiphactinus Audax And Megalops Atlanticus Using Landmark-Based Geometric Morphometrics, Edward Chase Shelburne

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Convergence is an evolutionary phenomenon wherein distantly related organisms independently develop features or functional adaptations to overcome similar environmental constraints. Historically, convergence among organisms has been speculated or asserted with little rigorous or quantitative investigation. More recent advancements in systematics has allowed for the detection and study of convergence in a phylogenetic context, but this does little to elucidate convergent anatomical features in extinct taxa with poorly understood evolutionary histories. The purpose of this study is to investigate one potentially convergent system—the feeding structure of Xiphactinus audax (Teleostei: Ichthyodectiformes) and Megalops atlanticus (Teleostei: Elopiformes)—using a comparative anatomical approach to assess …

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The Influence Of Land Use On The Pollen Diet Of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Colonies In Ellis County, Kansas, Ryan Engel Jan 2020

The Influence Of Land Use On The Pollen Diet Of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Colonies In Ellis County, Kansas, Ryan Engel

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Pollinators are integral to plant ecology as well as to worldwide food availability and security. Understanding how human-driven land use change impacts the nutrition of managed honey bees is important in pollinator conservation efforts and can contribute towards combating recent pollinator declines. The objective of this study was to determine sources of forage for honey bees across different land use types in Ellis County, Kansas, through pollen analysis and taxonomic identification. Replicate study colonies were placed in three separate land use types: Urban, Cropland, or Native/Semi-native prairie. Pollen was sampled every 7 to 14 days throughout a growing season (April …

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Apparent Resilience To Fire Of Native Bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) Communities From Upland Longleaf Pine Forests In Louisiana And Mississippi, Sara A. Simmons, Janice L. Bossart Jan 2020

Apparent Resilience To Fire Of Native Bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) Communities From Upland Longleaf Pine Forests In Louisiana And Mississippi, Sara A. Simmons, Janice L. Bossart

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Controlled burning is an essential tool for restoration and management of Pinus palustris (Longleaf Pine) habitats, yet effects of controlled burning on insect species, including pollinators, are rarely considered in conservation planning. We used blue vane traps to sample native bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) at recently burned and unburned sites in 2 Longleaf Pine upland forests in Mississippi and Louisiana. Our objective was to quantify short-term effects of controlled burns given fire-return intervals of 1-2 years are now regularly employed to manage Longleaf Pine woodlands. We sampled during 2016 and 2017 and collected 1777 native bees, representing 43 species. Recent fire …

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Urban Soil Carbon And Nitrogen Converge At A Continental Scale, Tara Trammell, Diane E. Pataki, Richard Pouyat, Peter M. Groffman, Carl Rosier, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Morgan J. Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Meredith Steele Jan 2020

Urban Soil Carbon And Nitrogen Converge At A Continental Scale, Tara Trammell, Diane E. Pataki, Richard Pouyat, Peter M. Groffman, Carl Rosier, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Morgan J. Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Meredith Steele

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

In urban areas, anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem structure and function are thought to predominate over larger‐scale biophysical drivers. Residential yards are influenced by individual homeowner preferences and actions, and these factors are hypothesized to converge yard structure across broad scales. We examined soil total C and total δ13C, organic C and organic δ13C, total N, and δ15N in residential yards and corresponding reference ecosystems in six cities across the United States that span major climates and ecological biomes (Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis‐St. Paul, Minnesota; and Phoenix, Arizona). Across the cities, we found soil C …

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