A primary aim of microbial ecology is to determine patterns and drivers of community distribution, interaction, and assembly amidst complexity and uncertainty. Microbial community composition has been shown to change across gradients of environment, geographic distance, salinity, temperature, oxygen, nutrients, pH, day length, and biotic factors 1-6 . These patterns have been identified mostly by focusing on one sample type and region at a time, with insights extra polated across environments and geography to produce generalized principles. To assess how microbes are distributed across environments globally-or whether microbial community dynamics follow funda mental ecological 'laws' at a planetary scale-requires either a massive monolithic cross environment survey or a practical methodology for coordinating many independent surveys. New studies of microbial environments are rapidly accumulating; however, our ability to extract meaningful information from across datasets is outstripped by the rate of data generation. Previous meta analyses have suggested robust gen eral trends in community composition, including the importance of salinity 1 and animal association 2 . These findings, although derived from relatively small and uncontrolled sample sets, support the util ity of meta analysis to reveal basic patterns of microbial diversity and suggest that a scalable and accessible analytical framework is needed.The Earth Microbiome Project (EMP, http://www.earthmicrobiome. org) was founded in 2010 to sample the Earth's microbial communities at an unprecedented scale in order to advance our understanding of the organizing biogeographic principles that govern microbial commu nity structure 7,8 . We recognized that open and collaborative science, including scientific crowdsourcing and standardized methods 8 , would help to reduce technical variation among individual studies, which can overwhelm biological variation and make general trends difficult to detect 9 . Comprising around 100 studies, over half of which have yielded peer reviewed publications (Supplementary Table 1), the EMP has now dwarfed by 100 fold the sampling and sequencing depth of earlier meta analysis efforts 1,2 ; concurrently, powerful analysis tools have been developed, opening a new and larger window into the distri bution of microbial diversity on Earth. In establishing a scalable frame work to catalogue microbiota globally, we provide both a resource for the exploration of myriad questions and a starting point for the guided acquisition of new data to answer them. As an example of using this Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of r...

We documented the seasonal occurrence and volume of different ant species in black bear (Ursus americanus) scats in north-central Minnesota. We determined nest densities of common ant species in strip transects and compared their use by bears with their availability. We recorded phenologic change in ant-nest characteristics and measured the nutritional composition of ant workers, ant pupae, and herbaceous spring foods of bears. Consumption of ants was higher than reported elsewhere, peaking in early July, when ants constituted 58% of scat volume and occurred in 96% of scats. Increased consumption of ants in late spring coincided with (i) increased abundance and size of ant brood in nests and (ii) decreased protein and increased fiber levels in herbaceous foods. Lasius umbratus was the principal species consumed at 1 site, whereas L. umbratus, Acanthomyops interjectus, and A. claviger dominated the diet farther south. These ants were likely preferred to other equally abundant species because of their sometimes dense concentrations inside nests, passive behavior, and distinctive odor, enabling bears to forage more efficiently than on other species. We suspect that regional differences in ant consumption are due to differences in local availability of these species. Where they are less common, bears likely select large-bodied ants, usually Camponotus and Formica species.

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BackgroundWildlife populations are difficult to monitor directly because of costs and logistical challenges associated with collecting informative abundance data from live animals. By contrast, data on harvested individuals (e.g., age and sex) are often readily available. Increasingly, integrated population models are used for natural resource management because they synthesize various relevant data into a single analysis.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe investigated the performance of integrated population models applied to black bears (Ursus americanus) in Minnesota, USA. Models were constructed using sex-specific age-at-harvest matrices (1980–2008), data on hunting effort and natural food supplies (which affects hunting success), and statewide mark–recapture estimates of abundance (1991, 1997, 2002). We compared this approach to Downing reconstruction, a commonly used population monitoring method that utilizes only age-at-harvest data. We first conducted a large-scale simulation study, in which our integrated models provided more accurate estimates of population trends than did Downing reconstruction. Estimates of trends were robust to various forms of model misspecification, including incorrectly specified cub and yearling survival parameters, age-related reporting biases in harvest data, and unmodeled temporal variability in survival and harvest rates. When applied to actual data on Minnesota black bears, the model predicted that harvest rates were negatively correlated with food availability and positively correlated with hunting effort, consistent with independent telemetry data. With no direct data on fertility, the model also correctly predicted 2-point cycles in cub production. Model-derived estimates of abundance for the most recent years provided a reasonable match to an empirical population estimate obtained after modeling efforts were completed.Conclusions/SignificanceIntegrated population modeling provided a reasonable framework for synthesizing age-at-harvest data, periodic large-scale abundance estimates, and measured covariates thought to affect harvest rates of black bears in Minnesota. Collection and analysis of these data appear to form the basis of a robust and viable population monitoring program.

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Abstract. Human activities and variation in habitat quality and configuration have been shown to influence space use patterns in many species, but few studies have documented the physiological responses of free-ranging animals to these factors. We combined remote biologger technology, capturing continuous heart rate values, with locational data from GPS collars to investigate the behavioral and physiological reactions of American black bears (Ursus americanus) to a landscape dominated by agriculture (52.5% areal cover). Our study occurred at the edge of the range of this species, with small, scattered patches of forest within a mosaic of crop fields and an extensive road network. However, only ;2-4% of the area contained crops that bears consumed (corn, sunflowers, oats). We used GPS locations to identify the habitat that bears occupied, and to estimate their rates of travel. Heart rates increased with movement rates, rising by over 30% from resting rate to their fastest travel speeds. We used a modeling approach to distinguish among factors that influenced heart rates independent of movement rates. Bears commonly crossed agricultural areas that provided no food or cover and their heart rates, elevated beyond what was expected from their movement rate, were indicative of a stress response. However, when bears entered agricultural areas composed of edible crops, many individuals showed reduced movement and slower heart rates, suggesting that bears foraging there felt at ease or crops allow bears to more easily forage due to their dense spatial arrangements. Unexpectedly, female bears elicited lower heart rates and lower levels of activity in the most fragmented patches of natural habitat, possibly a sign of humanavoidance behavior or a reaction related to crossing roads. During fall, as bears prepared for hibernation, their heart rates declined two weeks before their movements slackened, evidence that metabolism slowed to enhance fat accumulation; they also shifted to a nocturnal activity pattern, likely to reduce exertion during the heat of the day. The use of a physiological monitor provided new insights on bear biology and ecology that would not have otherwise been apparent.