The use of ball pits and playpens in laboratory Lister Hooded male rats induces ultrasonic vocalisations indicating a more positive affective state and can reduce the welfare impacts of aversive procedures

The advancement and quality of science rely on research that is robust and unbiased in its experimental design, execution, analysis, and reproducibility. In preclinical research, a better understanding of animal emotions and refinement of their husbandry, housing, and handling are important goals in providing good animal welfare in a laboratory setting which underpins rigorous research quality. Induction of positive emotional state in animals is a key component of their well-being, and one approach is to increase their environmental complexity using, for example, ball pits or playpens in rats. In this study, we recorded 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs) during animals’ exposure to the ball pit and playpen. We have previously shown that 50 kHz USVs provide a graded and quantifiable measure of an animal’s emotional state, and here find that access to the ball pit and playpen increases 50 kHz USVs, indicative of a more positive affective state. Using our affective bias test (ABT) we next quantified the animals’ emotional response to an aversive intervention and whether this could be attenuated by access to a playpen. The playpen exposure completely mitigated the negative affective state induced by an anxiogenic drug when compared with animals who experienced the drug in the home cage. Together, these findings suggest ball pits and playpens provide a simple and effective method to improve the welfare of laboratory rats and reduce the cumulative suffering they experience from their housing conditions and minor, aversive procedures.

Application of Risk Analysis in the Screening of Flood Disaster Hot Spots and Adaptation Strategies

In recent years, Taiwan has established a sound flood control foundation in terms of river management. Due to climate change and land development, surface runoff has increased. In addition, the functions of flood control engineering facilities have their limits. Surface runoff cannot be fully absorbed by rivers, and frequent floods still occur in some areas. According to the characteristics of water flowing along the terrain to low-lying land, the terrain features can be used to find out the hot areas prone to flooding and the appropriate location of flood storage space for improving flooding. On the basis of the natural terrain environment, the disaster risk framework is used to manage environmental complexity, and to carry out research on flood warning and governance decision-making systems, so that human beings can coexist with the uncertainty of flood risk. In this study, the Zhuoshuixi Basin was used as the sample area, the SCS-CN method was used to analyze the excess runoff, and the risk concept was used to establish a flood evaluation model. In addition, through the changes in land use, the SCS-CN method estimates the difference of potential maximum retention, quantifies the variation of excess rainfall in each watershed division, and uses the digital elevation model to calculate the depression site to analyze the relationship between the difference of potential maximum retention and the depression space of the watershed. The results show that the adaptation strategy for high-risk flooded areas should be strengthened, and areas with large water storage space and a small potential maximum retention difference can be the best location for offsite compensation.

Milking it for all it's worth: The effects of environmental enrichment on maternal nurturance, lactation quality, and offspring social behavior

While alterations in the neonatal environment can have dramatic effects on offspring outcomes, the mechanisms that drive this phenomenon remain unclear. Breastfeeding confers robust benefits to offspring development, including those related to growth, immunity, and neurophysiology. Similarly, improving environmental complexity (i.e., environmental enrichment; EE) contributes developmental advantages to both humans and laboratory animal models. However, the impact of environmental context on maternal care and milk quality has not been thoroughly evaluated, nor are the biological underpinnings of EE on offspring development understood. Here, Sprague-Dawley rats were housed and bred in either EE or standard-housed (SD) conditions. Although EE dams gave birth to a larger number of pups, litters were standardized and cross-fostered across groups on postnatal day (P)1. Maternal milk samples were then collected on P1 (transitional milk phase) and P10 (mature milk phase) for analysis. While EE dams spent less time nursing, postnatal enrichment exposure was associated with heavier offspring bodyweights. Moreover, milk from EE dams had increased triglyceride levels compared to SD dams. Milk from EE mothers also contained a greater microbiome diversity and a significantly higher abundance of bacterial families related to bodyweight and energy metabolism. In addition to changes in lactational quality, we observed sex- and time-dependent effects of EE on offspring social behavior. Specifically, prenatal EE exposure was associated with greater sociability in females, while postnatal EE was associated with greater sociability in male offspring. Together, these results underscore the multidimensional impact of the combined neonatal and maternal environments on offspring development. These data also identify potential deficiencies in the quality of the "gold standard" laboratory housing condition and its impact on the welfare and design of translationally relevant animal models in biomedical research.

The paradigm of systemic complexity and the sustainability of Homeland Earth: an epistemological view of the Brazilian reality according to the ideas of Edgar Morin

The environmental issue has been built on numerous epistemological and paradigmatic biases, which now reflect the concern with the perpetuation of environmental autopoiesis, and now evidence the asymmetries revealed by the contradictions of stateless capitalism. Edgar Morin, in his various works, exposed the profound nature of the environmental system, based on a careful analysis centered on the principles of reparadigmatization. Starting from this context, the objective of this article was to understand the bases of sustainability by integrating the structuring concepts of eco-organization and environmental complexity, traced by the Moranian paradigm, and their relationship with Brazilian environmental policies. Based on the profound content analysis of the works of this epistemic protagonist, it can be inferred that the paradigm of systemic complexity is not only essential for rethinking the environmental issue in contemporary times, but it is also absolutely possible, as attested by case studies of rural peoples and communities in the State of Amazonas, located in the Brazilian Amazon, here presented. Nevertheless, this article concludes that in order to overcome the supposed dichotomy between economics and the environment and to carry out another ‘via’ on Homeland Earth, it will be necessary to build a network of solidarity and cooperation between the different actors/subjects/institutions.

Microhabitat Variability in Human Evolution

Climate variability and hominin evolution are inextricably linked. Yet, hypotheses examining the impact of large-scale climate shifts on hominin landscape ecology are often constrained by proxy data coming from off-site lake and ocean cores and temporal offsets between paleoenvironmental and archaeological records. Additionally, landscape response data (most commonly, records of vegetation change), are often used as a climate proxy. This is problematic as it assumes that vegetation change signifies global or regional climate shifts without accounting for the known non-linear behavior of ecological systems and the often-significant spatial heterogeneity in habitat structure and response. The exploitation of diverse, rapidly changing habitats by Homo by at least two million years ago highlights that the ability to adapt to landscapes in flux had emerged by the time of our genus’ African origin. To understand ecosystem response to climate variability, and hominin adaptations to environmental complexity and ecological diversity, we need cross-disciplinary datasets in direct association with stratified archaeological and fossil assemblages at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. In this article, we propose a microhabitat variability framework for understanding Homo’s adaptability to fluctuating climates, environments, and resource bases. We argue that the exploitation of microhabitats, or unique ecologically and geographically defined areas within larger habitats and ecoregions, was a key skill that allowed Homo to adapt to multiple climates zones and ecoregions within and beyond Africa throughout the Pleistocene.

Seychelles warblers with silver spoons: juvenile condition is a lifelong predictor of annual survival, but not annual reproduction or senescence

1) The environment experienced during development, and its impact on intrinsic condition, can have lasting outcomes for adult phenotypes and could contribute to the individual variation in senescence trajectories. 2) However, the nature of this relationship in wild populations remains uncertain, owing to the difficulties in summarizing environmental complexity and long-term monitoring of individuals from free-roaming long-lived species. 3) In this study, we determine whether juvenile condition (derived from measures of body mass and size) is associated with senescence-related traits of a closely monitored population of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis). 4) Juveniles with a higher condition index were more likely to survive to adulthood – suggesting these juveniles experienced better developmental conditions. Furthermore, these juveniles as adults were in better condition and had higher rates of annual survival, independently of age. In contrast, there was no association between juvenile condition and declines in adult telomere length (a measure of somatic stress) nor annual reproduction. 5) These results indicate that juvenile condition, while not associated with senescence trajectories, can influence the likelihood of surviving to old age due to silver-spoon effects. This study shows that measures of intrinsic condition in juveniles can provide important insights into long-term fitness of individuals in wild populations.

Interaction networks between solitary hymenopterans and their natural enemies in different restoration areas

The diversity of species and their interactions have been positively related with environmental complexity. Therefore, highly anthropized environments have their integrity under serious threat. These effects may last for years compromising the dynamics of natural communities, such as antagonistic and mutualistic interactions, including host-natural enemy interactions. To investigate these effects, trap nest methodology was used to assess the diversity of solitary bees, wasps and their natural enemies in three fragmented environments with different degree of anthropic perturbation, composed of a Eucalyptus plantation (considered here as higher perturbation), a Cerrado area (medium perturbation) and a Riparian forest (lesser perturbation). Then, host-natural enemies associations were analysed to verify the size, specialization degree and modularity of interaction network. The gradient from highest to lowest degree of anthropic perturbation was evidenced in the species diversity index, the size of the interaction network and the specialization indexes of the host-natural enemy network. The environment with Eucalyptus plantation showed higher values of diversity of natural enemies, greater number of species in the interaction network, lesser degree of specialization in the interaction and lesser modularity, than Cerrado and Riparian forest environments, respectively. The low degree of nestedness and lack of significance of this index to all sampled areas are indicative of a specialized pattern of networks. The results corroborate the notion that human impact may affect interaction networks, this being an important tool for checking the degree of anthropic alteration.

Miocene Palynology of the Solimões Formation (Well 1-AS-105-AM), Western Brazilian Amazonia

During the Miocene, Andean tectonism caused the development of a vast wetland across western Amazonia. Palynological studies have been the main source of chronological and paleobotanical information for this region, including several boreholes in the Solimões Formation in western Brazilian Amazonia. Here, a palynological study of well core 1-AS-105-AM drilled in Tabatinga (Amazonas, Brazil) is presented: 91 new taxa are erected (25 spores and 66 pollen, including one new genus), 16 new combinations are proposed, and a list of botanical/ecological affinities is updated. We recorded 23,880 palynomorphs distributed in 401 different types. Among pollen and spores, 62 extant families and 99 extant genera were identified, which accounts for 39% and 30% of known botanical affinities to the family and genus level, respectively. Individual samples have pollen/spore counts with approximately 25% to 95% of known affinities to the family level. Pollen associations are sourced primarily from the wetland environments and to a minor extent from nonflooded forests. Palynological diversity analyses indicate an increase from the early to the middle/early late Miocene in core 1-AS-105-AM. Probable scenarios to explain this diversity increase include a higher degree of environmental complexity from the middle Miocene onwards, that is, a more heterogeneous riverscape, including broader extensions of nonflooded forests, as opposed to the swamp-dominated early Miocene. Additionally, the positive effects of the Miocene Climatic Optimum on plant richness could explain the increase in pollen richness. We posit hypotheses of forest diversification that can be tested as more botanical affinities are established along with a longer Miocene record.

Embodied intelligence via learning and evolution

The intertwined processes of learning and evolution in complex environmental niches have resulted in a remarkable diversity of morphological forms. Moreover, many aspects of animal intelligence are deeply embodied in these evolved morphologies. However, the principles governing relations between environmental complexity, evolved morphology, and the learnability of intelligent control, remain elusive, because performing large-scale in silico experiments on evolution and learning is challenging. Here, we introduce Deep Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning (DERL): a computational framework which can evolve diverse agent morphologies to learn challenging locomotion and manipulation tasks in complex environments. Leveraging DERL we demonstrate several relations between environmental complexity, morphological intelligence and the learnability of control. First, environmental complexity fosters the evolution of morphological intelligence as quantified by the ability of a morphology to facilitate the learning of novel tasks. Second, we demonstrate a morphological Baldwin effect i.e., in our simulations evolution rapidly selects morphologies that learn faster, thereby enabling behaviors learned late in the lifetime of early ancestors to be expressed early in the descendants lifetime. Third, we suggest a mechanistic basis for the above relationships through the evolution of morphologies that are more physically stable and energy efficient, and can therefore facilitate learning and control.