The increasing size and severity of wildfires across the western United States have generated dangerous levels of PM2.5 concentrations in recent years. In a changing climate, expanding the use of prescribed fires is widely considered to be the most robust fire mitigation strategy. However, reliably forecasting the potential air quality impact from prescribed fires, which is critical in planning the prescribed fires’ location and time, at hourly to daily time scales remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we introduce a spatio-temporal graph neural network (GNN)-based forecasting model for hourly PM2.5 predictions across California. Utilizing a two-step approach, we use our forecasting model to predict the net and ambient PM2.5 concentrations, which are used to estimate wildfire contributions. Integrating the GNN-based PM2.5 forecasting model with simulations of historically prescribed fires, we propose a novel framework to forecast their air quality impact. This framework determines that March is the optimal month for implementing prescribed fires in California and quantifies the potential air quality trade-offs involved in conducting more prescribed fires outside the peak of the fire season.

Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that Kuamaia lata, a helmetiid euarthropod from the lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Konservat-Lagerstätte, nests robustly within Artiopoda, the euarthropod clade including trilobitomorphs. Microtomography of new specimens of K. lata reveals details of morphology, notably a six-segmented head and raptorial frontal appendages, the latter contrasting with filiform antennae considered to be a diagnostic character of Artiopoda. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that a raptorial frontal appendage is a symplesiomorphy for upper stem-group euarthropods, retained across a swathe of tree space, but evolved secondarily in K. lata from an antenna within Artiopoda. The phylogenetic position of K. lata adds support to a six-segmented head being an ancestral state for upper stem- and crown-group euarthropods.

Through compositional inclusion or exclusion, the photograph can assert and communicate what belongs in a picture, in a landscape, in an ecosystem. It can illuminate what we deem conservation-worthy, or, on a larger scale, which extinctions are attention-worthy. Photographic practice helps to illuminate the active nature of extinction, and our choices as actors and witnesses within that process. Here, researchers from the University of Leeds’ Extinction Studies Doctoral Training Programme present individual reflections on interdisciplinary practice-led research in the Scottish Small Isles. We consider how photography, as a form of praxis, can generate new forms of knowledge surrounding extinction: its meanings, representations, and legacies, particularly through visual representation. We offer seven perspectives on contemporary image-making, from disciplines including philosophy, conservation biology, literature, sociology, geology, cultural anthropology, and palaeontology. Researchers gathered experiential, ethical, even biological meanings from considering what to include or exclude in images: from the micro to the macro, the visible to the invisible, the aesthetic to the ecological. We draw conclusions around meaning-making through the process of photography itself, and the tensions encountered through framing and decision-making in a time of mass ecological decline.

Understanding the population structure and genetic diversity of green turtles is crucial for effective conservation. This study investigated the occurrence, genetic composition, and potential origins of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Potiguar Basin, northeastern Brazil, based on stranding data from 2010 to 2019. Analysis revealed that 87.36% of the population consisted of juveniles, primarily females with a curved carapace length (CCL) between 30 and 59.9 cm. Genetic analysis of the mtDNA control region (481 bp, n = 39) revealed eight haplotypes, with CM-A8 (48.7%) and CM-A5 (30.8%) being the most common. This may be related to the geographic position of the Potiguar Basin, located in the ‘corner’ of the South American continent. High haplotype diversity and low nucleotide diversity were observed, consistent with other Brazilian foraging grounds. Mixed stock analysis identified Ascension Island as the primary source population, followed by Guinea-Bissau and Surinam. The results highlight the importance of the Potiguar Basin as a foraging area for green turtles and emphasize the need for comprehensive conservation strategies to protect this vulnerable population.

The fortune jack (Seriola peruana), a pelagic fish typically found along the Tropical Eastern Pacific, has been recorded in the northernmost Gulf of California (GC) region. The first record in the Upper Gulf and habitat expansion of S. peruana is reported based on the meristic, morphometric, and biological data of three specimens caught by local artisanal fishermen in April 2024. The lack of commercial value likely explains the region's absence of records for this species. The increased presence of S. peruana distribution in the Upper GC could have significant ecological implications, which warrants further fish habitat use and climate change research.

Simulated data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) has been very important for climate science research, as they can provide wide spatio-temporal coverage to address data deficiencies in both present and future scenarios. However, these physics-based models require a huge amount of high-performance computing (HPC) resources. As an alternative approach, researchers are exploring if such simulated data can be generated by Generative Machine Learning models. In this work, we develop a model based on Pix2Pix conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN), which can generate high-resolution spatial maps of global sea surface temperature (SST) using comparatively less computing power and time. We have shown that the maps generated by these models have similar statistical characteristics as the CMIP6 model simulations. Notably, we trained and validated our cGAN model on completely distinct time periods across all ensemble members of the EC-Earth3-CC and CMCC-CM2-SR5 CMIP6 models, demonstrating satisfactory results and confirming the generalizability of our proposed model.

Hydraulic fracturing generates large volumes of flowback and produced water, composed of complex mixtures of organic and inorganic constituents. The solids associated with these fluids are Fe-rich and can contain toxic organics, heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs). Despite this, only a few studies have analysed their composition and there is a lack of understanding about their interactions with microbial communities and their long-term fate in the environment. In this study, we analysed the solids associated with flowback water derived from a hydraulically fractured well in the Bowland Shale, UK. We also investigated the microbial reduction of these Fe(III)-rich materials under anaerobic conditions using anthraquinone-2.6-disulfonate (AQDS) as an electron shuttle and identified the resulting bioreduced mineral phases. XRD characterization indicated that the solids contained akaganeite (β-FeOOH, Cl) and Ba-bearing celestine (SrSO4). These Fe(III)-containing solids served as an electron acceptor for Shewanella frigidimarina and a flowback-derived Fe(III)-reducing enrichment culture. The bioreduced Fe(II)-bearing mineral phase was identified as ankerite [Ca(Fe,Mg,Mn)(CO3)2]; however, the presence of amorphous mineral phases is not ruled out. Microbial community composition was analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) most closely related to Chromohalobacter, Caminicella and putative Fe(III)-reducing genera were dominant across treatments. Our findings highlight the potential of these Fe(III)-bearing sludges to be harnessed for the development of wastewater treatment strategies; for example, coupling the oxidation of toxic organics with Fe(III) reduction through either the introduction of microbial inocula or biostimulation of the native microbial communities. Furthermore, microbial processing can also be optimized to transform the Fe(III) sludges into denser materials, which are easier to handle and can immobilize toxic metals, thereby reducing the toxicity of this waste.

Foraging traces associated with the web-footed avian footprint ichnotaxon Presbyornithiformipes feduccii are described. Four new ichnospecies in three new ichnogenera are established to identify and describe the traces that resulted from foraging behaviors. All four ichnotaxa are, in places, overprinted by P. feduccii footprints and occur either laterally to, or sinuously woven between, P. feduccii trackways and therefore were clearly emplaced by the P. feduccii tracemaker.

Erevnoichnus blochi new ichnogenus new ichnospecies is established for a series of pits, joined by a marginal groove, that are associated with web-footed bird trackways. This ichnotaxon is interpreted to record regular probing/gaping as a waterbird swept its head from side to side searching for food. Erevnoichnus strimmena n. igen. new ichnospecies is established for en-echelon, gently arcuate grooves produced through forward probing by a waterbird searching for food. Ravdosichnus guntheri new ichnogenus new ichnospecies is established for simple grooves with u-shaped profiles produced when a waterbird dragged its bill backwards through the sediment. Aptosichnus diatarachi new ichnogenus new ichnospecies is established for a broad, shallow groove/trough characterized by sinuous margins and a complex, irregular fill. It is interpreted to record thorough bill stirring in an area with common prey.

All four ichnotaxa named herein are interpreted to record tactile feeding behavior by a marginal lacustrine waterbird searching for prey. Their association with Presbyornithiformipes feduccii suggests that the purported tracemaker, Presbyornis pervetus, did not forage solely through filter-feeding but was also capable of tactile foraging for larger prey.

UUID: www.zoobank.org/42c5d24b-6e9a-45da-9a48-78f8f040311c

The knowledge on decapod crustaceans considerably increased in recent years, including that of the glypheid lobsters, known from the Early Jurassic to the present. On the basis of known occurrences worldwide, we analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of 86 species of the family Glypheidae and provide a general description of their history since the Early Jurassic. The first records are from low- to mid-paleolatitude localities of central Europe, around the margins of northern Tethys. During the Early Jurassic they diversified fast, and by Pliensbachian/Toarcian times they already had a wide paleolatitudinal range in both hemispheres. After a short decline in late Toarcian–Aalenian, they reached the highest diversity of their history during Oxfordian times and can be regarded as Jurassic cosmopolitans. After a diversity decline and occurrence gap during the earliest Cretaceous, they recovered again in the Barremian, but they were clearly beginning to be less diverse than before in the Tethys, to the point that by the Campanian their known occurrences were confined to high paleolatitudes. They survived the Cretaceous/Paleogene crisis but in Paleocene and Eocene times remained restricted to cold waters, being seemingly absent from low paleolatitudes. For a long time, the group was thought to be extinct about 50 million years ago, until two extant species were discovered in the deep Pacific. We also add to the knowledge of the only South American Jurassic Glypheidae known so far, the Toarcian Paraglyphea eureka (Damborenea and Manceñido, 1987) on the basis of newly collected material, discussing its significance and taphonomy.

Two diving beetle species (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae) from the extant genus Copelatus Erichson are documented from early Miocene Mexican amber. Copelatus chiapas new species is described based on a series of specimens of both sexes. Copelatus chiapas n. sp. is the third species of the subfamily Copelatinae described from amber and the first fossil diving beetle for which distinct sexual dimorphism is documented. The other species remains identified to genus level only, due to poor structural visibility. Key morphological characters of the species are illustrated.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/0127be7a-bcb5-41da-9363-283d5cd49738