Occupancy of young-of-year Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in Barrenland streams

Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is an iconic fish species that is present across the remote subarctic Barrenlands, yet our lack of understanding of their distributional patterns constrains predictions of anthropogenic effects on Barrenland populations. These adfluvial fish rely on seasonal lake-stream connections to migrate, spawn, and rear. We address knowledge gaps on what Barrenland stream attributes are suitable for rearing young-of-year Arctic grayling. Visual surveys of young-of-year Arctic grayling were conducted in 48 streams near Baker Lake, Nunavut, Canada. Occupancy modeling was used to relate stream habitat and landscape variables to fish presence/absence. The best predictors of occupancy were total area of contributing upstream lakes and landcover (upland/lowland); stream basins with larger contributing upstream lake area and more lowland cover were more likely to be occupied. Results suggest that occupancy reflects reliability of stream connectivity throughout the open water season and across years. The occupancy model developed here can adequately predict stream suitability for young-of-year Arctic grayling using lake area and land classification data that are remotely accessed. This may lessen the considerable financial and logistical constraints of conducting field research on Arctic grayling in the vast Barrenlands and facilitate more directed field programs to inform conservation and mitigation plans.

Effect of time constraints on the conceptual representation of metaphor processing

What shapes the conceptual representation during metaphor processing? In this paper, we investigate this question by studying the roles of both embodied simulation and linguistic distributional patterns. Researchers have propose that the linguistic component is shallow and speedy, ideal as a shortcut to construct crude representations and conserve valuable cognitive resources. Thus, during metaphor processing, people should rely on the linguistic component more if the goal of processing is shallow and the time available is limited. Here, we present two pre-registered experiments which aim to evaluate this hypothesis. The results supported the role of simulation in metaphor processing, but not the linguistic shortcut hypotheses: the effect of linguistic distributional frequency increased as people had more time to process the metaphors, and as they engaged in deep processing. Furthermore during shallow processing, the processing was easier when the embodied and linguistic components support each other. These findings indicate a complex interaction between the embodied and linguistic components during metaphor processing.

Towards a source-oriented approach to typological universals

Typological universals are skewed distributional patterns whereby languages recurrently display certain grammatical patterns as opposed to others. Explanations for these patterns are usually based on their synchronic properties, not actual diachronic processes that shape the pattern cross-linguistically. The paper discusses diachronic evidence about the origins of some typological universals pertaining to word order and aspect/tense conditioned alignment splits. This evidence poses two general challenges for synchronically based explanations of typological universals. First, the relevant patterns do not obviously arise because of the principles postulated to account for these patterns on synchronic grounds. Second, the development of these patterns is a combined result of multiple diachronic processes. These facts point to a new, source-oriented approach to typological universals, one focusing on what source constructions and developmental mechanisms play a role in the shaping of individual patterns, rather than the synchronic properties of the pattern in itself.

Can filled pauses be represented as linguistic items? Investigating the effect of exposure on the perception and production of um

The current paper presents three studies that investigated the effect of exposure on the mental representations of filled pauses ( um/uh). In Study 1, a corpus analysis identified the frequency of co-occurrence of filled pauses with words located immediately before or after them in naturalistic spoken adult British English (BNC2014). Based on the collocations identified in Study 1, in Study 2, 22 native British English-speaking adults heard sentences in which the location of filled pauses and the co-occurring words were manipulated and the participants were asked to judge the acceptability of the sentences heard. Study 3 was a sentence recall experiment in which we asked 29 native British English adults to repeat a similar set of sentences as used in Study 2. We found that frequency-based distributional patterns of filled pauses (Study 1) affected the sentence judgments (Study 2) and repetition accuracy (Study 3), in particular when the filled pause followed its collocate. Thus, the current study provides converging evidence for the account maintaining that filled pauses are linguistic items. In addition, we suggest filled pauses in certain locations could be considered as grammatical items, such as suffixes.

The African Species of Drepanolejeunea Vesiculosa Group with Description of Drepanolejeunea Vanderpoortenii Spec. Nova (Jungermanniopsida) from Madagascar

Drepanolejeunea clavicornis and D. friesii were previously synonymised with D. physaefolia or all of them with D. vesiculosa. In the meantime, Drepanolejeunea vandenberghenii was described from the same species group, as new. In this paper many African specimens are compared with the original descriptions of the above species. Morphological investigations of these and their distributional patterns suggested that the former synonymisation was not justified. In addition, a new, rheophytic species from the same group: Drepanolejeunea vanderpoortenii, is described, as new to science. As a result, from the taxa related to Drepanolejeunea vesiculosa, now six species are recognised from Africa, including its Indian Ocean islands. For these 6 morphotaxa an identification key is provided. The results need confirmation by a future molecular analysis.

Temperature and Prey Species Richness Drive the Broad-Scale Distribution of a Generalist Predator

The ongoing climate change and the unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss render the need to accurately project future species distributional patterns more critical than ever. Mounting evidence suggests that not only abiotic factors, but also biotic interactions drive broad-scale distributional patterns. Here, we explored the effect of predator-prey interaction on the predator distribution, using as target species the widespread and generalist grass snake (Natrix natrix). We used ensemble Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) to build a model only with abiotic variables (abiotic model) and a biotic one including prey species richness. Then we projected the future grass snake distribution using a modest emission scenario assuming an unhindered and no dispersal scenario. The two models performed equally well, with temperature and prey species richness emerging as the top drivers of species distribution in the abiotic and biotic models, respectively. In the future, a severe range contraction is anticipated in the case of no dispersal, a likely possibility as reptiles are poor dispersers. If the species can disperse freely, an improbable scenario due to habitat loss and fragmentation, it will lose part of its contemporary distribution, but it will expand northwards.

Hyperbius joceliae a new species of Ditomotarsinae from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (Hemiptera: Acanthosomatidae)

Hyperbius joceliae sp. n., a new Patagonian Acanthosomatidae (Hemiptera) species is described from the north of Tierra del Fuego Island. Diagnostic characters such as color, dorsal pilosity, head and pronotal punctures, length of mandibular plates and antennae, shape and color of paratergite 9, shape and texture of gonocoxite I and II of the only known species of the genus, Hyperbius geniculatus (Signoret), are compared with the new species and discussed. Distributional patterns of the South American Acanthosomatidae and speciation of the Patagonian fauna of this family are also briefly discussed.