Biology subjects

White, E. R.

Publications and source records attributed to White, E. R..

12 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Soundscape reflects breeding phenology in colonial seabirds

Migratory seabirds are valuable indicators of marine ecosystem change but can be difficult to monitor during the breeding season due to dense colonies, remote breeding sites, and sensitivity to investigator disturbance. Passive acoustic monitoring offers a minimally invasive alternative to traditional surveys; however, high call overlap in large colonies complicates approaches that rely on identifying individual vocalizations. In this study, we evaluate acoustic energy as a simple soundscape metric for monitoring breeding phenology in colonial seabirds. Using a comparative approach, we deployed autonomous recorders at breeding colonies of Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) in the Western Antarctic Peninsula and common terns (Sterna hirundo) in the Gulf of Maine. We examined seasonal patterns in acoustic energy and compared these trends with known breeding stages and colony observations. Across both species, acoustic energy exhibited distinct seasonal patterns that correspond to key phenological stages, including courtship, incubation, chick rearing, and fledging. These stages are associated with distinctive colony-wide behavioral shifts in colony attendance, territorial interactions, and parent-offspring communication that structure the breeding-season soundscape. Our results demonstrate that colony-wide acoustic energy can capture key phenological transitions in seabird colonies and provide a scalable, minimally invasive approach for monitoring breeding dynamics in remote or rapidly changing environments. HighlightsO_LIPassive acoustic monitoring can track bioindicator phenology under climate change C_LIO_LIAmplitude captures colony-level activity in dense seabird colonies C_LIO_LISoundscape patterns correspond to key breeding stages C_LIO_LIEffective in both temperate and polar seabird systems C_LIO_LIEnables scalable, low-disturbance monitoring in remote systems C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Microglial and Neuronal Cross-talk in the Nucleus Accumbens

Microglia are the brain's resident immune cells and rapidly migrate toward sites of neuronal stress and neurotransmitter imbalance. The molecular cues directing microglia movement remain poorly understood, particularly in brain regions involved in reward processing, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Dopamine (DA) dysregulation and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are hallmarks of substance use disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Dopamine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are co-released in the NAc, but the effects of ROS on ATP/DA co-transmission and microglia surveillance remain unknown. Using multiphoton imaging in brain slices with GFP-labeled microglia, we found that ATP consistently and non-selectively drives microglia chemoattraction, whereas DA chemoattraction only occurs in a subset of microglia through D1 but not D2 receptor activation. Microglia enter a reactive state via LPS, and LPS results in enhanced DA/ATP release measured via fast scan cyclic voltammetry. ROS production also transitions microglia to a reactive state, but inhibits DA release, with mixed effects on ATP release. These findings identify ATP- and DA-mediated mechanisms for NAc microglia chemoattraction and opposing immune dysregulation (via LPS or ROS) of DA terminal function.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Ontogeny of vocalizations in Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) chicks

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an efficient method to monitor dense aggregations of vocal animals but requires understanding the acoustic ecology of the species under examination. Avian vocal development is largely understood from songbirds, limiting its application to non-passerine taxa with different social and environmental pressures. As an example, colonial seabirds such as the Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) inhabit acoustically crowded environments and rely on vocal cues, in addition to spatial information, for parent-offspring recognition. While adult penguin vocal communication is well studied, chick vocal development remains poorly characterized. Using the deep learning-based system DeepSqueak, we aimed to characterize the vocal development of wild P. adeliae chicks in the West Antarctic Peninsula. We found that acoustic features of chick calls changed systematically with age, with calls becoming longer and more frequency modulated over time. Characterizing chick vocal development from hatch to fledge provides important information to study phenological communication patterns in vocal-dependent seabirds and supports the application of PAM to assess climate-driven impacts on indicator species.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2025

Habitat suitability modeling growth and cover trends of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) outplants in the lower Florida Keys

The decline of important reef building corals has motivated the development of habitat suitability models used to identify optimal locations for coral restoration. In the Florida Keys habitat suitability models incorporate coarse spatial data sampled over large areas, resulting in recommended outplant sites at distant locations, making it logistically difficult and expensive to access and regularly monitor. Restoration efforts to date show that outplanting success can vary widely within a limited space, necessitating improved predictive abilities of coral outplant success at high spatial resolutions within a restoration site. With the advent of Structure-from-Motion image reconstruction, fine-scale, site specific, digital terrain models can be created to support habitat suitability model development. In this study, generalized linear mixed models used extracted seafloor terrain attributes and environmental variables to identify within site locations of high Acropora cervicornis growth and healthy coral cover of long-term outplants. Percent healthy coral cover significantly decreased after two years of outplantation. The submodel of corals exclusively less than two years old was unable to identify environmental conditions associated with higher healthy cover. For all corals, outplant recommendations for higher healthy cover are in deeper waters, away from the coast, in less rough terrain, and closer to the reef edge. Model results for growth support these recommended outplant sites, in addition to concave locations near high slope relief. Finally, our results also indicate that marine heat waves, but especially marine cold waves negatively correspond with coral growth, and high wind events positively correspond with coral growth. These model results provide a basis for further endeavors in modeling endangered organismal success, which are vulnerable to minute differences in local environmental conditions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

A precision oncology-focused deep learning framework for personalized selection of cancer therapy

Precision oncology matches tumors to targeted therapies based on the presence of actionable molecular alterations. However, most tumors lack actionable alterations, restricting treatment options to cytotoxic chemotherapies for which few data-driven prioritization strategies currently exist. Here, we report an integrated computational/experimental treatment selection approach applicable for both chemotherapies and targeted agents irrespective of actionable alterations. We generated functional drug response data on a large collection of patient-derived tumor models and used it to train ScreenDL, a novel deep learning-based cancer drug response prediction model. ScreenDL leverages the combination of tumor omic and functional drug screening data to predict the most efficacious treatments. We show that ScreenDL accurately predicts response to drugs with diverse mechanisms, outperforming existing methods and approved biomarkers. In our preclinical study, this approach achieved superior clinical benefit and objective response rates in breast cancer patient-derived xenografts, suggesting that testing ScreenDL in clinical trials may be warranted.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Social-ecological models with social hierarchy and spatial structure applied to small scale fisheries

1Socio-ecological models combine ecological systems with human social dynamics in order to better understand human interactions with the environment. To model human behavior, replicator dynamics can be used to model how societal influence and financial costs can change opinions about resource extraction. Previous research on replicator dynamics has shown how evolving opinions on conservation can change how humans interact with their environment and therefore change population dynamics of the harvested species. However, social-ecological models often assume that human societies are homogeneous with no social structure. Building on previous work on social-ecological models, we develop a two-patch socio-ecological model with social hierarchy in order to study the interactions between spatial dynamics an social inequity. We found that fish movement between patches is a major driver of model dynamics, especially when the two patches exhibit different social equality and fishing practices. Further, we found that the societal influence between groups of harvesters was essential to ensuring stable fishery dynamics. Next, we developed a case-study of a co-managed fishery where one group fishes sustainably while another was over-harvests, resulting in a fishery collapse of both patches. We also found that because social influence only included number of fishers and not effective strategies, increased social pressure actually decreased the sustainability of the fishery. The findings of this study indicate the importance of including spatial components to socio-ecological models and highlights the importance of understanding species movements when making conservation decisions. Further, we demonstrate how incorporating fishing methods from outside sources can result in higher stability of the harvested population, indicating a need for diversified information when managing resources.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Using mechanistic models to assess temporary closure strategies for small scale fisheries

1The blue octopus (Octopus cyanea) fishery off the southwest coast of Madagascar is important for coastal communities. This fishery is a key economic resource for the local community as blue octopus catch is sold by local fishers to international and local export markets. Thus, it is important to monitor and evaluate the status of octopus to ensure its sustainability. One common octopus management approach is through the use of temporary spatial closures. Models can be a useful support tool to evaluate the status of a population and assess different possible management strategies. To better understand the biology and assess the sustainability of blue octopus, we parameterize a Levkovitch population matrix model using existing catch data. We found that the octopus population was experiencing a 1.8% decline per month at the time of data collection in 2006. However, since 2006, a number of management practices, including temporary closures lasting several weeks to several months have been implemented successfully. In line with these efforts, our model indicates that the fishery has likely been sustained since 2006 due to these annual closures. Our model provides support to the idea that temporary closures have restored this population and that temporary closures provide flexibility in management strategies that local communities can tailor to their economic and social needs. In addition, we were able to estimate several important life history metrics, such as time in each stage, stable stage distribution, reproductive value, and per stage survivability, that can be used in future work. Collectively, our study provides insight into the biology of blue octopus as well as demonstrate how temporary closures can be an effective conservation strategy due to the wide range of implementation options.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Determining the Role of Environmental Covariates on Planktivorous Elasmobranch Population Trends within an Isolated Marine Protected Area

Several studies have found predictable relationships between the behavior of planktivores and environmental conditions, suggesting that planktivores may be especially sensitive to environmental change. However, many studies to date are based on limited observations, include few of the many environmental covariates which could influence planktivores, and do not occur over long enough time periods to make inferences about the potential effects of environmental change. As such, long term datasets on planktivores are necessary to disentangle the potential impacts of oceanographic and environmental variability. In this study, to elucidate the relationship between plankivores and environmental variability, we use data obtained over the last 28 years by a small group of divemasters at Cocos Island, Costa Rica, one of the oldest marine reserves in the world. We found that, in general, for planktivorous elasmobranchs, several environmental variables, such as, chlorophyll A, lunar cycle, and salinity have clear influences on their occurrence and relative abundances. We found that in the phases of lower illuminations, there were significant increases in abundance of mobula rays. Specifically, a 0.10 mg/m3increase in Chlorophyll A correlated with 26% decrease in whale sharks. We found that increases in salinity correlated with increases in mobula abundance but did not correlate with observations of mantas or whale sharks. We also found that omission of environmental covariates can lead to overprediction and underprediction of relative abundances. Our findings highlight the need to take environmental conditions into account when evaluating the efficacy of marine protection.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

If this title is funny, will you cite me? Citation impacts of humour and other features of article titles in ecology and evolution

Titles of scientific papers pay a key role in their discovery, and "good" titles engage and recruit readers. A particularly interesting aspect of title construction is the use of humour, but little is known about whether funny titles boost or limit readership and citation of papers. We used a panel of volunteer scorers to assess title humour for 2,439 papers in ecology and evolution, and measured associations between humour scores and subsequent citation (both self-citation and citation by others). Papers with funnier titles were cited less often, but this appears to result from a confound with paper importance. Self-citation data suggest that authors give funnier titles to papers they consider less important. After correction for this confound, papers with funny titles have significantly higher citation rates, suggesting that humour recruits readers. We also examined associations between citation rates and several other features of titles. Inclusion of acronyms and taxonomic names was associated with lower citation rates, while assertive-statement phrasing and presence of colons, question marks, and political regions were associated with somewhat higher citation rates. Title length had no effect on citation. Our results suggest that scientists can use creativity with titles without having their work condemned to obscurity.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2021

Distant water industrial fishing in developing countries: A case study of Madagascar

As industrial vessels continue to expand in both extractive capacity and spatial range, concerns have grown over foreign industrial fishing occurring within the marine territories of developing countries, both legally and illegally. Madagascars status as a "least developed country", coupled with its high marine biodiversity, makes its waters particularly susceptible to fishing by distant water fishing nations (DWFNs). However, given constraints in management and research, it is unclear how foreign industrial fishing, both legal via foreign agreements and illegal, may impact local marine resources that many coastal communities depend on for food security, cultural meaning and livelihoods. We used satellite-derived fishing effort data from 2012-2020, via Global Fishing Watch, to analyze industrial fishing effort occurring within Madagascars Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). We documented 907,643 hours of industrial fishing within the Madagascar EEZ across 277 vessels from 17 different countries. We found that Taiwanease vessels (39.8%) using drifting longlines and Malagasy (17.2% shrimp trawlers were the most prevalent. Fishing effort was highly seasonal (68% of effort between October and February) and increased with higher global fish prices and the Indian Ocean Dipole, which is a measure of regional water temperature cycles. We also found a number of instances (17.6% of the fishing effort for 170,726 total hours) of foreign fishing vessels operating close to shore and within a number of marine protected areas. These results highlight the need for increased transparency surrounding foreign fishing agreements and unauthorized fishing within the waters of developing countries. Increases in industrial fishing effort and encroachment into near-shore areas has the potential to severely threaten current sustainable fisheries management initiatives by conservation organizations and coastal communities. HighlightsO_LIDistant water fishing nations dominated fishing efforts within Madagascars EEZ. C_LIO_LILonglining by foreign nations was the dominant fishing mode and increased from October-February. C_LIO_LIMalagasy vessels focused on trawling for shrimp. C_LIO_LIFishing effort increased during positive Indian Ocean Dipoles and with higher fish prices. C_LIO_LIDistant water fishing nations frequently fished close to shore and sometimes within MPAs. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Sampling requirements and approaches to detect ecosystem shifts

Environmental monitoring is a key component of understanding and managing ecosystems. Given that most monitoring efforts are still expensive and time-consuming, it is essential that monitoring programs are designed to be efficient and effective. In many situations, the expensive part of monitoring is not sample collection, but instead sample processing, which leads to only a subset of the samples being processed. For example, sediment or ice cores can be quickly obtained in the field, but they require weeks or months of processing in a laboratory setting. Standard sub-sampling approaches often involve equally-spaced sampling. We use simulations to show how many samples, and which types of sampling approaches, are the most effective in detecting ecosystem change. We test these ideas with a case study of Cladocera community assemblage reconstructed from a sediment core. We demonstrate that standard approaches to sample processing are less efficient than an iterative approach. For our case study, using an optimal sampling approach would have resulted in savings of 195 person-hours--thousands of dollars in labor costs. We also show that, compared with these standard approaches, fewer samples are typically needed to achieve high statistical power. We explain how our approach can be applied to monitoring programs that rely on video records, eDNA, remote sensing, and other common tools that allow re-sampling.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Catastrophes, connectivity, and Allee effects in the design of marine reserve networks

Catastrophic events, like oil spills and hurricanes, occur in many marine systems. One potential role of marine reserves is buffering populations against disturbances, including the potential for disturbance-driven population collapses under Allee effects. This buffering capacity depends on reserves in a network providing rescue effects, with a potential trade-off in spacing between individual reserves to balance rescue via connectivity and independence of disturbances experienced. We use a set of population models to examine how dispersal ability and the disturbance regime interact to determine the optimal reserve spacing. We incorporate fishing in a spatially-explicit model to understand the consequences of objective choice (i.e. conservation versus fisheries yield) on the optimal reserve spacing. We show that the optimal spacing between reserves increases when accounting for catastrophes. This result is accentuated when Allee effects interact with catastrophes to increase the probability of extinction. We also show that classic tradeoffs between conservation and fishing objectives disappear in the presence of catastrophes. Specifically, we found that at intermediate levels of disturbance, it is optimal to spread out reserves in order to increase population persistence and to maximize spillover into non-reserve areas.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

ecology↗