Abstract: Approches complémentaires des interactions hôte-parasite en zones polaire: de la détection de parasites et agents infectieux à l'étude fonctionnelle, écologique et évolutive de leurs interactions avec leurs hôtes.

Abstract: Dispersal represents a key life-history trait with several implications for the fitness of organisms, population dynamics and resilience, local adaptation, meta-population dynamics, range shifting, and biological invasions. Plastic and evolutionary changes of dispersal traits have been intensively studied over the past decades in entomology, in particular in wing-dimorphic insects for which literature reviews are available. Importantly, dispersal polymorphism also exists in wing-monomorphic and wingless insects, and except for butterflies, fewer syntheses are available. In this perspective, by integrating the very latest research in the fast moving field of insect dispersal ecology, this review article provides an overview of our current knowledge of dispersal polymorphism in insects. In a first part, some of the most often used experimental methodologies for the separation of dispersers and residents in wing-monomorphic and wingless insects are presented. Then, the existing knowledge on the morphological and life-history trait differences between resident and disperser phenotypes is synthetized. In a last part, the effects of range expansion on dispersal traits and performance is examined, in particular for insects from range edges and invasion fronts. Finally, some research perspectives are proposed in the last part of the review.

Abstract: The identification of geographic areas where the densities of animals are highest across their annual cycles is a crucial step in conservation planning. In marine environments, however, it can be particularly difficult to map the distribution of species, and the methods used are usually biased towards adults, neglecting the distribution of other life-history stages even though they can represent a substantial proportion of the total population. Here we develop a methodological framework for estimating population-level density distributions of seabirds, integrating tracking data across the main life-history stages (adult breeders and non-breeders, juveniles and immatures). We incorporate demographic information (adult and juvenile/immature survival, breeding frequency and success, age at first breeding) and phenological data (average timing of breeding and migration) to weight distribution maps according to the proportion of the population represented by each life-history stage. We demonstrate the utility of this framework by applying it to 22 species of albatrosses and petrels that are of conservation concern due to interactions with fisheries. Because juveniles, immatures and non-breeding adults account for 47%–81% of all individuals of the populations analysed, ignoring the distributions of birds in these stages leads to biased estimates of overlap with threats, and may misdirect management and conservation efforts. Population-level distribution maps using only adult distributions underestimated exposure to longline fishing effort by 18%–42%, compared with overlap scores based on data from all life-history stages. Synthesis and applications. Our framework synthesizes and improves on previous approaches to estimate seabird densities at sea, is applicable for data-poor situations, and provides a standard and repeatable method that can be easily updated as new tracking and demographic data become available. We provide scripts in the R language and a Shiny app to facilitate future applications of our approach. We recommend that where sufficient tracking data are available, this framework be used to assess overlap of seabirds with at-sea threats such as overharvesting, fisheries bycatch, shipping, offshore industry and pollutants. Based on such an analysis, conservation interventions could be directed towards areas where they have the greatest impact on populations.

Abstract: The chemistry of reactive gases inside the snowpack and in the lower atmosphere was investigated at Concordia Station (Dome C), Antarctica, from December 2012 to January 2014. Measured species included ozone, nitrogen oxides, gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), and formaldehyde, for study of photochemical reactions, surface exchange, and the seasonal cycles and atmospheric chemistry of these gases. The experiment was installed ≈1 km from the station main infrastructure inside the station clean air sector and within the station electrical power grid boundary. Ambient air was sampled continuously from inlets mounted above the surface on a 10 m meteorological tower. In addition, snowpack air was collected at 30 cm intervals to 1.2 m depth from two manifolds that had both above- and below-surface sampling inlets. Despite being in the clean air sector, over the course of the 1.2-year study, we observed on the order of 50 occasions when exhaust plumes from the camp, most notably from the power generation system, were transported to the study site. Continuous monitoring of nitrogen oxides (NOx) provided a measurement of a chemical tracer for exhaust plumes. Highly elevated levels of NOx (up to 1000 × background) and lowered ozone (down to ≈50 %), most likely from reaction of ozone with nitric oxide, were measured in air from above and within the snowpack. Within 5–15 min from observing elevated pollutant levels above the snow, rapidly increasing and long-lasting concentration enhancements were measured in snowpack air. While pollution events typically lasted only a few minutes to an hour above the snow surface, elevated NOx levels were observed in the snowpack lasting from a few days to ≈ 1 week. GEM and formaldehyde measurements were less sensitive and covered a shorter measurement period; neither of these species' data showed noticeable concentration changes during these events that were above the normal variability seen in the data. Nonetheless, the clarity of the NOx and ozone observations adds important new insight into the discussion of if and how snow photochemical experiments within reach of the power grid of polar research sites are possibly compromised by the snowpack being chemically influenced (contaminated) by gaseous and particulate emissions from the research camp activities. This question is critical for evaluating if snowpack trace chemical measurements from within the camp boundaries are representative for the vast polar ice sheets.