Carcass decomposition plays a crucial role in nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning, yet its impact on vegetation dynamics in different ecosystems remains poorly understood. This study investigates the effects of decomposing adult blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) carcasses on vegetation dynamics in the Bankenveld grasslands of South Africa, a biodiverse and ecologically significant ecosystem. Field experiments conducted at Telperion Nature Reserve examined changes to vegetation structure, biomass production, plant species composition and nutritive value associated with the decomposition of blue wildebeest carcasses with three treatment types (control/no carcass, open carcass and caged carcass) over a period of 12 months. Results show an increase in vegetation height at all carcass sites, an increase in plant cover at caged carcass sites, a significant increase in biomass at control and caged carcass sites, a significant increase in species richness at carcass sites and no change in species diversity with a smaller decrease in veld condition scores at caged carcass sites showing a slight improvement in veld condition. These findings show that decomposition noticeably affected the variables investigated, promoting increased growth of nutrient-demanding species and altering community composition. This study suggests that carcass decomposition contributes towards the heterogeneity of Bankenveld grasslands, emphasizing that decomposition processes should be considered in management and conservation strategies for these areas.

Sponges have thrived in diverse environmental conditions since the early Cambrian until today. However, little is known about how their adaptive capability and strategies have been shaped throughout evolutionary history. Here, we explore this question based on a new leptomitid sponge fossil from the Cambrian Stage 4. The family Leptomitidae was an abundant sponge group inhabiting Cambrian soft substrates but significantly declined thereafter. The new species exhibits a sophisticated set of morphological characteristics adaptive to a shallow siliciclastic environment, which are unprecedented among leptomitids. These include (i) a robust body wall woven by spirally twisted monaxonic spicules; (ii) a thick stub-like root tuft for anchoring; (iii) spicules radiating out from the sponge body to prevent clogging and sinking; and (iv) the inferred capability to close the osculum against unfavourable stimuli. Nevertheless, the new fossil species maintains a leptomitid body plan and lacks modularity and morphological plasticity, the two common and critical attributes in extant sponges to enhance flexibility and resilience in changing environmental conditions. This juxtaposition of evolutionary innovation and structural conservatism offers a compelling case for further exploration of the evolutionary mechanisms that shaped early sponge lineages.

As the world’s population and industrial sector rapidly expand, the demand for energy is rising. Solar cells can address both global energy and environmental needs. With the aim to enhance dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) efficiency, we designed four metal-free biphenylamine- and triphenylamine-based dyes (RK2–RK5) based on the reference dye RK1, increasing the donor strength (substituting different groups such as biphenylamine and triphenylamine into the donor side of the dye) as such dyes improved DSSC power conversion efficiency. Density functional theory (DFT) was applied at the B3LYP/6–31G** level to calculate the ground-state (S0) optimized geometries of RK1-RK5. Time-dependent DFT was used to compute the absorption spectra, utilizing four functionals (B3LYP, CAM-B3LYP, PBE1PBE and BHandHLYP), in the gas phase and in solvents such as dichloromethane and ethanol. Comprehensive analysis of RK1-RK5 as well as dyes@TiO2 was performed, and light was shed on the optoelectronic properties. Frontier molecular orbitals' charge density distribution revealed the sensitizers' intramolecular charge transfer from the donor to the acceptor unit. After adsorption of the dyes on TiO2, charge transfer was seen from sensitizer to the TiO2 semiconductor’s surface in dyes@TiO2. Adsorption of the dyes on the TiO2 cluster would be stable, as revealed by the dyes@TiO2 cluster’s negative binding energy. Additionally, it was found that the presence of two donor groups raises the electronic coupling and electron injection constants in RK4 and RK5, indicating that the charge injection in these newly designed dyes would be superior. As a result, the DSSC efficiency in the newly designed derivatives has been improved to 8.05% for RK5 by substituting the triphenylamine unit at the R1 and R2 positions in the parent compound. These well established correlations between structure–property relationships and performance provide profound insight into how improving the donor moiety strength in organic sensitizers affects device performance. It boosted photovoltaic performance through enhanced short-circuit current density and light-harvesting efficiency. For high efficiency in DSSCs, this can provide a useful rational molecular design strategy for D–π–A organic sensitizers.

Ecosystems are undergoing global changes that disrupt energy transfer across trophic levels, reducing energy availability and destabilizing predator–prey interactions. In marine systems, small pelagic fish (SPF) are key energy vectors to higher trophic levels. In the Bay of Biscay, common dolphins rely heavily on SPF, which have declined in size and condition in recent decades, while dolphin by-catch has increased. To explore whether prey field changes could explain shifts in dolphin distribution, we mapped prey energy by integrating biomass, size and energy content for four SPF species (sardine, anchovy, sprat and small horse mackerel), representing 80% of the dolphin diet. We analysed acoustic survey data from PELGAS (2000–2023) and JUVENA (2009–2023) to assess temporal and spatial changes in prey energy. Energy per prey has declined, mainly due to decreasing fish length and energy density. Total energy available for common dolphin remained stable, through increase of lower-energy anchovies and decrease of larger, higher-energy sardines. Spatial redistributions were also evident, with sardine energy becoming more coastal and anchovy energy expanding northward. These energy seascapes dynamics, probably climate-driven, may have led dolphins to forage closer to shore, in areas of higher fishing pressure, thereby contributing to the recent rise in by-catch.

Addressing the need for cost-effective alternatives to activated carbon (AC) for chlortetracycline (CTC) removal, this study developed sustainable kaolin–alginate composite beads (KN@Alg). The adsorption performance of KN@Alg was systematically evaluated compared with pristine KN and AC through kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics. Regeneration cycles and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis were employed to assess reusability and elucidate mechanisms. Results demonstrated that incorporating of KN into the alginate matrix significantly enhanced the adsorption capacity to 68.74 mg g−1, surpassing that of KN (42.76 mg g−1) and approaching that of AC (102.96 mg g−1). KN@Alg achieved 93.7% removal efficiency in dynamic experiments, demonstrating practical applicability. Thermodynamics confirmed a spontaneous and exothermic process. Mechanistic studies revealed that CTC uptake onto KN@Alg involves multifunctional mechanisms, including n–π interactions, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic attraction, cation exchange and calcium ion-bridging. Notably, KN@Alg exhibited superior renderability, retaining approximately 76% efficiency after four cycles, outperforming both AC and KN. Compared with the high cost of AC, KN@Alg integrates the rigid framework of KN with the functional advantages of alginate, addressing the limitations of low adsorption capacity and instability of pure components while achieving comparable removal efficacy. These findings highlight KN@Alg as a sustainable, cost-effective alternative for CTC-contaminated water treatment.

Determining carnivore agency in taphonomic research is crucial for identifying site formation processes and carnivore–hominin interactions that influenced human evolution. Previous deep learning (DL) models classified the four principal carnivore agents affecting African hominins, but exhibited uneven performance due to unbalanced sample sizes. This study introduces a dual method based on few-shot supervised learning (FSSL) and model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML) as an alternative, achieving more consistent accuracy (FSSL: 81.54–83.56%; MAML: 82.56–85.13%), and significantly improving macro-average F1 scores. The best performing MAML model, Xception, reached 85.13% accuracy and an 84% F1 score, with taxon-specific F1 scores of 82% (crocodiles), 83% (hyenas), 88% (leopards) and 83% (lions), making the most precise classification of carnivore-made tooth marks to date. Applying FSSL-MAML ensemble models to Homo habilis specimens OH7 and OH65 from Olduvai Gorge confirms that leopards were preying on these hominins, as they had been earlier on australopithecines. Contrary to our expectations, these findings demonstrate that early Homo was still part of the prey spectrum, reinforcing the idea that the transition to dominant predator status occurred later in human evolution or penecontemporaneously to H. habilis through a different hominin taxon.

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) pose significant global health threats, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. Remote sensing (RS) and geospatial technologies offer valuable tools for monitoring environmental changes and predicting disease transmission patterns, thereby supporting proactive public health interventions. This study reviews the application of RS and geospatial methods in the prediction, monitoring and control of VBDs. A systematic approach was employed to analyse existing literature, focusing on RS platforms such as Landsat, MODIS and Sentinel-2, alongside geographical information systems and machine learning models used for predictive modelling. The review reveals that these technologies play a crucial role in identifying environmental drivers of disease dynamics, including temperature, precipitation and land-use changes. However, challenges remain in terms of data resolution, model generalizability and the integration of socio-economic factors into predictive frameworks. The integration of early warning systems and participatory surveillance is highlighted as a promising avenue for improving disease forecasting. The study emphasizes the need for enhanced data accessibility, cross-sector collaboration and the inclusion of socio-economic variables in future research to improve the scalability and accuracy of disease prediction models.

This study utilized a clustering-based approach to investigate whether countries with similar COVID-19 dynamics also share similar public health and selected sociodemographic factors. The pairwise distances between 42 European countries for six characteristics were calculated, including COVID-19 incidence, mortality, vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity, cross-country mobility and sociodemographic data. Hierarchical clustering trees were constructed, and the strengths of association between the pairs of trees were quantified using cophenetic correlation and Baker’s Gamma correlation measures. The analysis revealed distinct patterns of agreement between clusterings. Vaccination clusterings showed moderate agreement with incidence but no strong agreement with mortality. Mortality-based clustering only agreed with population health clustering. Incidence-based clustering aligned with population health, genetic diversity and selected sociodemographic parameters. Genetic diversity clusterings agreed with mobility and related sociodemographic characteristics. The utility of the cluster-based methods for the time-series is illustrated, and these findings provide insights into the underlying mechanisms driving epidemiological disparities across localities and subpopulations.

Evaluating others’ prosocial tendencies can benefit individuals by allowing them to interact with prosocial individuals and avoid antisocial ones. The ontogeny of humans’ strong prosocial preference has been widely investigated using the hill paradigm. Infants’ preference for helper over hinderer agents was measured after they watched a scene in which the helper agent pushed a climber up a hill while the hinderer agent pushed the climber down the hill. Bonobos tested with the hill paradigm preferred the hinderer over the helper, contrasting previous findings for other nonhuman primates. In this study, we explored whether another primate species would exhibit a hinderer preference using the same procedure as the one used with bonobos. Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) did not prefer the helper over the hinderer (or vice versa). While the small sample size (n = 12) and low attentional level observed in our subjects limit interpretation, this finding contributes to a broader critical thinking on the relevance of the hill paradigm to investigate prosocial preferences and on methodological limitations when testing nonhuman animals. Studies using various experimental paradigms with conspecifics or human actors as social agents are needed to further investigate the social evaluation of prosocial behaviours in primates.

Previous research on intensely human-socialized pigs found no evidence for orientation alternations to direct human attention to an inaccessible target, the benchmark behaviour that in many other species has been reported to evidence capacity for functionally referential communication with humans. However, the unsolvable task paradigms that are typically used may mask communicative capacities by promoting manipulative behaviours in animals with strong independent problem-solving tendencies, like pigs. Here, using a novel out-of-reach paradigm that does not induce manipulative biases, we reassessed the capability of pigs for functionally referential communication with humans. We compared the emergence of orientation alternations between a human and an elevated, physically inaccessible target in adult companion pigs and dogs, a species characterized by more human-dependent problem-solving. We found that with these settings, pigs attempted to solve the task independently even less often than dogs and, similarly to dogs, pigs also exhibited orientation alternations. This is the first report demonstrating human-oriented functionally referential communicative behaviours in pigs, suggesting that this capacity may be more widespread across mammals than previously thought.