The eumycetozoan genus Ceratiomyxa appears to have a cosmopolitan distribution, although two of the three macroscopic species within the genus have been reported only from tropical regions of the world. In theory these two tropical species might be expected to display more narrow niches than their cosmopolitan counterpart due to their specialization for tropical environments. However ecological data documenting niche separation in eumycetozoans are largely lacking. As part of several investigations carried out in the neotropics the ecology of the three macroscopic species of Ceratiomyxa was studied. The results from in situ measurements of environmental factors associated with their fructifications reveal a clear separation of niches between the two tropical species, which might be an indication of resource partitioning within the genus. As expected in theory the cosmopolitan C. fruticulosa shows the broadest niche of the three species. Moreover the niche overlap value between C. morchella and C. sphaerosperma along with results from a multivariate CDA analysis seem to indicate that these two species are more specialized than C. fruticulosa.

Peru is experiencing a “gastronomic boom” that is increasing the demand for seafood. We investigated two implicit assumptions of two popular sustainable seafood consumer-based initiatives: (1) seafood is labelled correctly, and (2) the recommended species are healthy for consumers. We used DNA barcoding to determine the taxonomic identity of 449 seafood samples from markets and restaurants and analysed the concentration of total mercury (THg) in a sub-sample (271 samples) of these. We found that a third of seafood is mislabelled and that over a quarter of all samples had mercury levels above the upper limit recommended by the US EPA (300 ng/g ww). Additionally, 30% of samples were threatened and protected species. Mislabelling often occurred for economic reasons and the lack of unique common names. Mislabelled samples also had significantly higher mercury concentrations than correctly labelled samples. The “best choice” species compiled from two sustainable seafood guides had less mislabelling, and when identified correctly through DNA barcoding, had on average lower mercury than the other species. Nevertheless, some high mercury species are included in these lists. Mislabelling makes the efforts of seafood campaigns less effective as does the inclusion of threatened species and species high in mercury.

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A pilot study was conducted on a multimodal educational tool, Peruvian Food Chain Jenga (PFCJ), with 5th‐grade students (N = 54) at a public charter school. The goal was to compare the effectiveness of the multimodal tool to a more traditional presentation of the same materials (food chain) using an experimental/control design. Data collection included a pretest/posttest and a “What I Did/What I Learned” response sheet. Quantitative analysis of pretest/posttest results showed both groups improved from pretest to posttest; however, there was no statistically significant difference between posttest results of experimental and control groups. Qualitative analysis of student open‐ended responses indicated a difference between students who used the PFCJ and students in the control. The most striking difference occurred in how the students perceived the connectedness of species and the awareness of human impact. Our findings suggest that using a model such as PFCJ as a means of teaching and connecting scientific content with practices related to ecosystems is an effective method of engaging students in intelligent discussions about these topics.

Texas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) have disappeared from many areas in Texas, especially from urbanized areas, probably in large part due to loss of suitable habitat. Our previous studies have found that horned lizards persist and occur at high densities in some small towns in southern Texas. Nevertheless, this species has continued to decline and disappear from these towns. Long-term data from Kenedy and Karnes City indicate that when study sites experienced significant shrub and vegetation removal horned lizards declined by 79%. We hypothesize this may in part be due to the degradation of the thermal landscape for these lizards. We determined the preferred temperature range (T −T) of lizards at our study sites and took field measurements of body temperature (T). Temperature loggers were also placed in three microhabitats across our study sites. Shrubs and vegetation provided the highest quality thermal environment, especially for about 5 hours midday when temperatures in the open and buried under the surface exceeded the lizards’ critical maximum temperature (CT) or were above their preferred temperature range. Horned lizard density was positively related to the thermal quality of the habitat across our sites. Texas horned lizards in these towns require a heterogenous mix of closely spaced microhabitats and especially thermal refugia, such as shrubs and vegetation along fence lines and in open fields. Maintaining thermal refugia is one of the most important and practical conservation actions that can be taken to help small ectotherms persist in human modified landscapes and cope with increasing temperatures due to climate change.