Franz Tappeiner (1816–1902): The physician who became headhunter. Portrait of a leading figure in 19th Century anthropology

Franz Tappeiner (1816, Laas – 1902, Merano) was an Austrian physician and anthropologist. He studied at the universities of Prague, Padua and Vienna and in 1846 he moved to Merano. Tappeiner investigated the transmission of pulmonary tuberculosis in animal models and he dealt with public health. As an anatomist, he performed thousands of craniometrics measurements, creating a huge skull collection later donated to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In 1878, Tappeiner turned to archeology and palaeoanthropology, with the aim of clarifying the origins of the Alpine population of Tyroleans. He was also active as a botanist.

Eurasian lynx populations in Western Europe: What prospects for the next 50 years?

Persistence of viable populations may be uncertain for large carnivore species, especially for those established in human-dominated landscapes. Here, we studied the Eurasian lynx in Western Europe established in the Upper Rhine metapopulation (i.e., Jura, Vosges-Palatinian and Black Forest populations) and in the Alpine population. These populations are currently considered as endangered or critically endangered due to high anthropogenic mortality and isolation. We assessed lynx persistence over a 50-year time horizon by implementing a spatially-explicit individual-based model while accounting for road mortality and habitat selection. For the Alpine and Jura populations, forecasts showed a steady growth rapidly reaching a stabilization phase with high resident female occupancy, and a positive growth for the newly re-established Vosges-Palatinian population. Moreover, this population showed a difference in female occupancy between the northern part, where a recent reintroduction program was conducted in the Palatinate Forest, and the southern part. Only the group of individuals in the Black Forest had an irregular growth probably due to the small number of only male lynx at start of the simulation and poor connectivity to surrounding populations. Exchanges of individuals between populations were limited, and the Jura population played the role of a crossroad. Persistence of lynx in Western Europe seems likely on a large scale over the next 50 years. However, lynx persistence in the southern part of the Vosges-Palatinian population and in the Black Forest appears challenging without long-term conservation management.

Early Breeding Conditions Followed by Reduced Breeding Success Despite Timely Arrival in an Alpine Migratory Songbird

Timing reproduction to coincide with optimal environmental conditions is key for many organisms living in seasonal habitats. Advance in the onset of spring is a particular challenge to migratory birds that must time their arrival without knowing the conditions on the breeding grounds. This is amplified at high elevations where resource availability, which is linked to snowmelt and vegetation development, shows much annual variation. With the aim of exploring the effects of variability in the onset of local resource availability on reproduction, we compared key life history events in an Alpine population of the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) between years of contrasting timing of snowmelt. Based on remote sensed images, we identified 2020 as an exceptionally early snowmelt and green-up year compared to the preceding year and the long-term average. Individuals tracked with light-level geolocators arrived well before the snowmelt in 2020 and clutch initiation dates across the population were earlier in 2020 compared to 2019. However, observations from a citizen science database and nest monitoring data showed that the arrival-breeding interval was shorter in 2020, thus the advance in timing lagged behind the environmental conditions. While hatching success was similar in both years, fledging success was significantly reduced in 2020. A trophic mismatch in early 2020 could be a possible explanation for the reduced reproductive success, but alternative explanations cannot be excluded. Our results show that, despite the timely arrival at the breeding grounds and a contraction of the arrival-breeding interval, Wheatears were not able to advance breeding activities in synchrony with environmental conditions in 2020. Earlier reproductive seasons are expected to become more frequent in the future. We show that the negative effects of changing seasons in Alpine migratory birds might be similar to birds breeding at high latitudes, despite their shorter migratory distance.

How the west was won: genetic reconstruction of rapid wolf recolonization into Germany’s anthropogenic landscapes

Following massive persecution and eradication, strict legal protection facilitated a successful reestablishment of wolf packs in Germany, which has been ongoing since 2000. Here, we describe this recolonization process by mitochondrial DNA control-region sequencing, microsatellite genotyping and sex identification based on 1341 mostly non-invasively collected samples. We reconstructed the genealogy of German wolf packs between 2005 and 2015 to provide information on trends in genetic diversity, dispersal patterns and pack dynamics during the early expansion process. Our results indicate signs of a founder effect at the start of the recolonization. Genetic diversity in German wolves is moderate compared to other European wolf populations. Although dispersal among packs is male-biased in the sense that females are more philopatric, dispersal distances are similar between males and females once only dispersers are accounted for. Breeding with close relatives is regular and none of the six male wolves originating from the Italian/Alpine population reproduced. However, moderate genetic diversity and inbreeding levels of the recolonizing population are preserved by high sociality, dispersal among packs and several immigration events. Our results demonstrate an ongoing, rapid and natural wolf population expansion in an intensively used cultural landscape in Central Europe.

Polyzosteria cockroaches in Tasmania (Blattodea: Blattidae: Polyzosteriinae) represent a new, endemic species, with allopatric alpine and coastal sub-populations

We describe the endemic Tasmanian cockroach, Polyzosteria yingina sp. nov. (Henry), 78 years after it was first documented. Evidence from morphology, biogeography and CO1 barcodes is used to distinguish this species from related mainland Australian taxa it has previously been confused with. Polyzosteria yingina sp. nov. has two strongly allopatric populations: a compact alpine population above 1000m and a dispersed east coastal one at sealevel. However, mitochondrial Control Region D-loop molecular analysis suggests a single species identity for these disparate populations. Detailed internal and external morphological descriptions and photographs of living and preserved type material are presented. We also speculate on some hypotheses which could account for the unusual distribution of this charismatic insect.

Parallelism in gene expression between foothill and alpine ecotypes in Arabidopsis arenosa

Parallel adaptation results from independent evolution of similar traits between closely related lineages and allows testing to which extent evolution is repeatable. Parallel adaptation often involves similar gene expression changes but the identity of genes shaped by parallel selection and the causes of expression parallelism remains largely unknown. By comparing genomes and transcriptomes of four independent foothill–alpine population pairs across four treatments, we addressed genetic basis, plasticity and functional consequences of gene expression parallelism in alpine adaptation. Seeds of four population pairs of Arabidopsis arenosa from distinct mountain regions were raised under four treatments that differed in temperature and irradiance, factors varying strongly with elevation. Parallelism in gene expression was quantified by RNA-seq in leaves of young plants. By manipulating temperature and irradiance, we also tested for parallelism in plasticity (gene-by-environment interaction [GEI]). We found significant parallelism in differential gene expression across four independently recruited alpine ecotypes with an overrepresentation of genes involved in biotic stress response. In addition, we demonstrated significant parallelism in GEI indicating shared response to environmental variation in our foothill and alpine populations. Fraction of genes showing expression parallelism also encompassed genomic variants showing outlying differentiation, with greater enrichment of such variants in cis-regulatory elements. In summary, our results suggest frequent evolutionary repeatability in shaping expression difference associated with colonization of an alpine environment and support the hypothesis of an important role of genetic variation in cis-regulatory elements in gene expression parallelism.