Background Despite urban (domestic dog) rabies cycles being the main target for rabies elimination by 2030, syl‑ vatic (wildlife) rabies cycles can act as rabies spillovers especially in settlements contiguous to wildlife reserves. Rural communities next to wildlife reserves are characterized by unique socio-demographic and cultural practices includ‑ ing bat consumption, hunting for bushmeat, and ...

Hibernation is an extreme state of seasonal energy conservation, reducing metabolic rate to as little as 1% of the active state. During the hibernation season, many species of hibernating mammals cycle repeatedly between the active (aroused) and hibernating (torpid) states (T–A cycling), using brown adipose tissue (BAT) to drive cyclical rewarming. The regulatory mechanisms controlling this process ...

The impact of a rapidly shifting sea-ice cover on climate, ecosystem processes and biophysical habitat properties is not yet fully understood, particularly in the central Arctic Ocean, due to a lack of spatially representative observations. From June to July 2020 during the year-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC, leg 4) in the Transpolar Drift, we ...

To establish a management plan for northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission requested in 2023 a proposal for a harvest control rule (HCR). Based on discussions with stakeholders, six different HCRs were defined and evaluated against three performance criteria: 1. precautionarity (less than 5% risk of falling below limit reference point for ...

Cold-water lakes situated in high latitudes and altitudes have pivotal socio-ecological importance both globally and locally. However, they are increasingly threatened by multiple anthropogenic stressors, such as climate change, hydropower and invasive species. The development of efficient management strategies is therefore urgently needed and requires a comprehensive understanding of the factors ...

Coastal and adjacent shelf waters are generally highly productive ecosystems harboring important ecological processes and exposed to a range of anthropogenic pressures from land-based and marine sectors. Ensuring that the cumulative pressures from human activities do not cause unacceptable, permanent harm to the ecosystem is challenging but crucial for sustainable management of these regions. ...

Marine-terminating glacier fjords play a central role in the transport of oceanic heat toward ice sheets, regulating their melt. Mixing processes near glacial termini are key to this circulation but remain poorly understood. We present new summer measurements of circulation and mixing near a marine-terminating glacier with active sub-glacial discharge. 65% of the fjord's vertical overturning circulation ...

We report the effects of varying physiological and other properties on the heat and water exchange in the maxilloturbinate structure (MT) of the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus or Eb) in realistic environments, using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. We find that the water retention in percent is very high (about 90 %) and relatively unaffected by either cold (−30 ◦C) or warm (10 ◦C) ...

On Arctic shelves, benthic food-webs are tightly linked to overlying primary production. In the seasonal ice zone, sympagic (ice-associated) primary production can be a major source of carbon for the benthos on productive inflow shelves. However, the role of sympagic organic matter is less well-understood in food webs of heavily ice-covered, less- productive outflow shelves, such as the northeast ...

In mammals, seasonal opportunities and challenges are anticipated through programmed changes in physiology and behavior. Appropriate anticipatory timing depends on synchronization to the external solar year, achieved through the use of day length (photoperiod) as a synchronizing signal. In mammals, nocturnal production of melatonin by the pineal gland is the key hormonal mediator of photoperiodic ...