The leopard Panthera pardus is a widespread felid, distributed throughout Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East. The survival of the African leopard Panthera pardus pardus is significantly higher within protected areas but numerous factors influence the growth and stability of populations. Monitoring population density and demographics over a long timeframe can help to identify the drivers of change and inform conservation actions. We aimed to determine the drivers of change in leopard populations in a protected area and to identify those factors that encourage leopards to remain within the reserve, so that appropriate conservation management actions can be implemented to improve leopard survival and reduce human–wildlife conflict. We used camera trapping to monitor changes in the leopard population in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa, in a long-term study during 2013–2022. We applied spatially explicit capture–recapture models to the camera-trap data to determine annual population density and sex ratio. We estimated that leopard density declined from six to four individuals per 100 km2 over the study decade. The sex ratio was heavily female-biased during the first years of the study but was male-biased by 2022 (male : female ratio of 0.64 : 0.36). Individual leopards remained in the Park for 2.45 years on average and annual turnover was high. The abundance of other predators and the level of conflict with people affected leopard density and their duration of residency in the Park, and annual rainfall also had an effect. Instability within leopard populations affects population growth and is linked to a range of factors such as prey availability, habitat fragmentation and persecution. However, immigration of males from other populations should increase genetic diversity and improve breeding success. Understanding the drivers of leopard population dynamics, and the factors that cause them to remain inside protected areas, can help with the design and implementation of appropriate conservation management actions to lower individual turnover and limit human–wildlife conflict.

This research evaluated the influence of adjuvants on hexazinone efficacy for smut grass control in greenhouse and field conditions. The greenhouse experiment was established in 2023 with two runs, comprising hexazinone (1.12 kg ai ha−1) applied alone or with adjuvants (Grounded, NanoPro, and Sorbyx), and six simulated volumes of rain accumulation (0, 6, 12, 25, 50, and 100 mm). In field trials in 2022 and 2023, hexazinone (1.12 kg ai ha−1) was applied with various adjuvants (BREAK-THRU, Grounded, NanoPro, and Sorbyx) to a nontreated control and to small smut grass at Marianna, Florida, and to giant smut grass at Ona, Florida. In greenhouse experiments, all adjuvants added to hexazinone improved the herbicide’s efficacy, resulting in >78% control at 30 d after treatment (DAT), <50% biomass (% of the nontreated control 30 DAT), and little to no regrowth by 60 DAT. Applying hexazinone without an adjuvant resulted in <70% control at 30 DAT and >52% biomass, and regrowth by 60 DAT. Similarly, adding Grounded, NanoPro, and Sorbyx to hexazinone in field experiments resulted in a reduction in smut grass density of >63% reduction. However, adding BREAK-THRU to hexazinone did not enhance the herbicide’s efficacy. The adjuvants Grounded, NanoPro, and Sorbyx enhanced the effectiveness of hexazinone in both greenhouse and field experiments, indicating their potential for effective smut grass management.

Leptospirosis remains a significant occupational zoonosis in New Zealand, and emerging serovar shifts warrant a closer examination of climate-related transmission pathways. This study aimed to examine whether total monthly rainfall is associated with reported leptospirosis in humans in New Zealand. Poisson and negative binomial models were developed to examine the relationship between rainfall at 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-month lags and the incidence of leptospirosis during the month of the report. Total monthly rainfall was positively associated with the occurrence of human leptospirosis in the following month by a factor of 1.017 (95% CI: 1.007–1.026), 1.023 at the 2-month lag (95% CI:1.013–1.032), and 1.018 at the 3-month lag (95% CI: 1.009–1.028) for every additional cm of rainfall. Variation was present in the magnitude of association for each of the individual serovars considered, suggesting different exposure pathways. Assuming that the observed associations are causal, this study supports that additional human cases are likely to occur associated with increased levels of rainfall. This provides the first evidence for including rainfall in a leptospirosis early warning system and to design targeted communication and prevention measures and provide resource allocation, particularly after heavy rainfall in New Zealand.

Soil respiration is the second largest natural flux of Carbon (C) between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere, with tropical forests amongst the largest contributors to such soil-derived C effluxes. With climate change expected to drive changes in both temperature and rainfall, our ability to predict responses of the C cycle in the future hinges upon an understanding of how these factors influence soil respiration. However, these relationships remain poorly characterised across the seasonal tropics, especially South Asia. Here, for two seasonal tropical sites in the Western Ghats of India, we characterised annual, seasonal and temporal variation in soil respiration and assessed its temperature and moisture sensitivity over six years. At both sites, soil respiration was positively correlated with temperature at the instantaneous scale, but showed no relationship with temperature at seasonal or annual scales. In contrast, soil respiration showed significant relationships with rainfall and soil moisture at all temporal scales. At the annual scale, soil respiration was negatively correlated with total annual rainfall. At the seasonal scale, wet season Rs was significantly lower than in the dry season. At the instantaneous scale, Rs showed a parabolic relationship with soil moisture, where soil respiration increased with soil moisture up to ∼21 cm3cm-3 and decreased beyond that point. Our results suggest that future changes in the Indian summer monsoon, especially the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events, are likely to significantly impact soil respiration rates in this seasonal tropical forest.

The effects of rainfall and temperature on the seasonal phenology of ant nuptial flights in a forest locality in Ghana was studied for 42 months using a light-trap. A total of 204393 ants was caught. Of the 135 species/morphospecies collected, 40 could not be identified beyond genus, and males of a further 14 beyond subfamily. The commonest 65 species/morphospecies flew a mean of 10.1 ± 0.4 months per year. With the exception of males of Dorylus atriceps, Platythyrea conradti, Plat. modesta, Crematogaster nr striatula plus gynes of Plagiolepis brunni and Cr. [F257], whose peak flights occurred in the main dry season, flight activity coincided with the onset of the rainy seasons. Both sexes of Pheidole megacephala, P. speculifera, Tetramorium aculeatum, and Paraparatrechina albipes plus gynes of Cr. striatula and males of Anochetus africanus, Hypoponera dulcis, Cr. kneri, and T. guineensis flew more frequently on rainy than dry dates. Nineteen species were caught more frequently on dry than on wet dates including most Camponotus, Tapinoma, and Technomyrmex spp. Fifteen species/morphospecies responded positively to increasing monthly rainfall, six to increasing monthly temperatures, and five to the interaction between these factors, with males of A. pellucidus, H. dulcis, and Cr. striatula caught more frequently in wetter, warmer months, and those of Camponotus olivieri and Technomyrmex andrei in drier, warmer ones.

In utero exposure to income shocks has a lasting effect on child well-being. In an agricultural economy, fluctuations in rainfall directly affect household income. In this paper, we investigate the short- and long-run impact of pre-pregnancy, prenatal, and early-life exposure to fluctuations in rainfall on height for a sample of 2290 children in rural Pakistan. Given the widespread canal irrigation system prevalent in the country, we also investigate how fluctuations in river water flows affect child health. We find that fluctuations in rainfall during the pre-pregnancy period have the most lasting effects on the stature of children in the short and long run. Exposure of a mother to a 1 standard deviation reduction in rainfall during the pre-pregnancy period led her child to be 0.17 standard deviations (0.53 cm) shorter by age four. This negative impact of a pre-pregnancy rainfall shock on height persisted over time; the child continued to be 0.12 standard deviations (0.83 cm) shorter, on average, by 13 years of age. However, we find that the effect of pre-pregnancy rainfall fluctuations on children’s height is smaller in districts that have access to irrigation facilities.

Regional warming rates experienced in the Antarctic Peninsula since the mid-twentieth century, linked to global climate change, have been amongst the world's fastest. The majority of studies of change in this region have focused on temperature, and while precipitation is also predicted to change (both in form and quantity) in the models, fewer studies have set out to document and test this prediction. In this study, we examined trends in research publications on precipitation variability over the Antarctic Peninsula from 1990 to 2023 using the Web of Science Core Collection database. A total of 86 relevant papers were retained and used to identify patterns in scientific outputs. VOSviewer and Bibliometrix software packages were used to illustrate the subject content of and trends in publications retrieved by key word analysis. Our findings revealed a positive trend in the number of papers published by year. Within the analysed period, research on precipitation variability in the Antarctic Peninsula region was initiated by a study of Turner and colleagues from 1997. The UK and US research communities were the two largest contributors to this field of Antarctic research globally, with their researchers also holding strong positions within international collaborative networks.

Estimating the population parameters, performance and factors that influence reproduction from long-term, individual-based monitoring data is the gold standard for effective wildlife management and conservation. Yet this information is often difficult and costly to collect or inaccessible to managers. We synthesized a 20-year set of individual-based monitoring data from a subset of black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis subpopulations across a range of environmental conditions in Namibia. Our findings demonstrate that despite the relatively arid landscape in Namibia, the black rhinoceros metapopulation is performing well, measured by age at first reproduction, inter-birth interval, population growth and survivorship. Information-theoretic modelling revealed that a univariate model including normalized differential vegetative index had a greater influence upon age at first reproduction than population density. The inter-birth interval model set identified cumulative rainfall during the 15 months prior to the birth month as the top model, although the mean normalized differential vegetative index during the inter-birth interval was comparable. There was little evidence for density-dependence effects on reproduction. These findings suggest that although browse quality could have a greater impact on parameters spanning multiple years, shorter-term parameters could be more influenced by rainfall. Our analysis also revealed a synchronous pattern of conceptions occurring in the rainy season. Our study provides a set of population parameter estimates for Namibian black rhinoceros subpopulations and preliminary insights on factors driving their reproduction. These expand our collective knowledge of global black rhinoceros population dynamics and improve our confidence and capability to adaptively manage the black rhinoceros metapopulation of Namibia.