It’s Friday and that means that it’s time for our Friday link dump, where we highlight some recent papers (and other stuff) that we found interesting but didn’t have the time to write an entire post about. If you think there’s something we missed, or have something to say, please share in the comments section!

A study in Molecular Ecology gives evidence for population structure between Atlantic and Indo-Pacific whale sharks.  The genetic data suggests that, despite their classification as a highly migratory species and a “single global metapopulation”, whale sharks from these two regions rarely interbreed.  Typically, distinct populations are a species are managed independently, though it remains to be seen if regulations regarding these animals will change based on the paper’s conclusions.

A focus article in Science brings attention to the vaquita, a species of porpoise found in the Gulf of California, whose numbers are estimated at 150.  Check it out here, and help protect their extinction here. – Nate Johnson

Corridors can facilitate movement of invasive species between habitat patches, according to Resasco et al. in Ecology, and consequently result in a loss of native species in the habitats that humans are trying to protect.

Also in Ecology, Russell et al. take advantage of the fact that rats are everywhere, and demonstrate that tenure as reigning invasive rat is not necessarily a lifetime gig. Seemingly equivalent rats can displace resident invaders. – Emily Grason

“Are your analyses too fancy?” Methods in Ecology and Evolution has an interesting series of interviews and tutorials in Youtube. In their latest video, David Warton interviewed Professor Ben Bolker and Mark Brewer, a  Scottish consultant, about the tendency that Ecologist have of developing and using  fancy and complex analyses that are, in some situations, uncalled for. Here is the link to the interview.

Every year, the Princeton University runs an contest called “Art of Science“, which explores the interplay between science and art, with images that are produced during the course of scientific research. Here is the list of competitors and winners of this year contest.  – Vinicius Bastazini

August 8, 2014