Dangerous neighbours: Birds and bird-eating bats sharing tree cavities.

Mounting evidence indicates the non-consumptive effects of predators significantly impact prey physiology, ecology and behaviour. Passerine birds experience adverse effects on nesting and reproductive success when in proximity to predators. Fear of predators is context-dependent and influenced by hunting habitats and foraging strategies. While some bat species prey on birds, the greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus) stands out by specialising in avian prey, especially during peak bird migration. N. lasiopterus is thought to seize avian prey in flight, but direct evidence is lacking. If birds were taken from nests, they would likely avoid nesting near these bats. However, no observations support this view. This study documents the successful reproduction of Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) nesting alongside a colony of approximately 25 greater noctules. This bird species is a prey species for greater noctules in Italy. Over about 1 month (April-May 2023), we observed parent birds provisioning food to chicks, with at least two chicks alive and fed outside the tree cavity by the end of the period. While acknowledging the limitations of a single observation, we propose that this previously unknown behaviour indirectly supports the idea that greater noctules only capture avian prey in flight, not within confined spaces. This observation challenges the perception that these bats pose a threat when sharing roosting spaces in trees, as evidenced in our observed case. We hope this novel observation inspires future research on variations in bird nesting behaviour and reproductive success in the presence of bird-eating bats, as well as an assessment of the long-term impact on population dynamics and reproductive success of nesting birds sharing such roosting spaces.

Climate is changing, are European bats too? A multispecies analysis of trends in body size.

Animal size, a trait sensitive to spatial and temporal variables, is a key element in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. In the context of climate change, there is evidence that some bat species are increasing their body size via phenotypic responses to higher temperatures at maternity roosts. To test the generality of this response, we conducted a >20-year study examining body size changes in 15 bat species in Italy, analysing data from 4393 individual bats captured since 1995. In addition to examining the temporal effect, we considered the potential influence of sexual dimorphism and, where relevant, included latitude and altitude as potential drivers of body size change. Contrary to initial predictions of a widespread increase in size, our findings challenge this assumption, revealing a nuanced interplay of factors contributing to the complexity of bat body size dynamics. Specifically, only three species (Myotis daubentonii, Nyctalus leisleri, and Pipistrellus pygmaeus) out of the 15 exhibited a discernible increase in body size over the studied period, prompting a reassessment of bats as reliable indicators of climate change based on alterations in body size. Our investigation into influencing factors highlighted the significance of temperature-related variables, with latitude and altitude emerging as crucial drivers. In some cases, this mirrored patterns consistent with Bergmann's rule, revealing larger bats recorded at progressively higher latitudes (Plecotus auritus, Myotis mystacinus, and Miniopterus schreibersii) or altitudes (Pipistrellus kuhlii). We also observed a clear sexual dimorphism effect in most species, with females consistently larger than males. The observed increase in size over time in three species suggests the occurrence of phenotypic plasticity, raising questions about potential long-term selective pressures on larger individuals. The unresolved question of whether temperature-related changes in body size reflect microevolutionary processes or phenotypic plastic responses adds further complexity to our understanding of body size patterns in bats over time and space.

Cyan Hydrogen Process: A New Route for Simultaneous Hydrogen Production and Carbon Valorization.

Hydrogen is expected to largely contribute to the near-future circular economy. Today, most hydrogen is still produced from fossil fuels or renewable pathways with low efficiency and high cost. Herein, a proof of concept for a novel hydrogen production process is proposed, here named cyan hydrogen, inspired by a combination of the green and blue processes, due to the key role played by water and the low carbon content in the gas phase, respectively. The developed novel process, recently patented and demonstrated at the lab scale, is based on successive steps in which ethanol (5.0 mL) and water (10.0 mL) are alternately fed, with a fixed initial amount of sodium metaborate (2.0 g), in a batch reactor at 300 °C. Preliminary results showed the simultaneous production of a 95% v/v hydrogen stream, a polymeric byproduct with a repetitive carbon pattern -CH2-CH2-, and a liquid phase rich in oxygenated chemicals at temperatures lower than conventional hydrogen production processes.

Higher and bigger: How riparian bats react to climate change.

The altitudinal distribution of animals and changes in their body size are effective indicators of climate change. Bats are sensitive to climate change due to their dependence on temperature during critical life stages. However, long-term studies documenting responses over extended periods are rare. We present a 24-year investigation of Myotis daubentonii, a riparian bat known for altitudinal sexual segregation, along a river course in Central Italy. While males occupy the entire river course, females are confined to downstream warmer areas supporting successful reproduction due to improved foraging site productivity. In 2000, females were absent above 900 m a.s.l in our study area. We hypothesise that a) this altitude threshold is now higher, due to thermal gradient changes along the river course; and b) thermoregulatory costs for reproductive females have declined, leading to increased energy investment in offspring and subsequent generational growth in bat body size. Confirming our hypotheses, females exhibited a 175-m upward shift in altitude limit. Furthermore, we found a concurrent increase in body size (but not condition). Temperatures increased in the 24 years, likely allowing females to extend their range to higher elevations and favouring an increase in newborn body mass. Riparian vegetation remained unchanged, excluding habitat quality changes as the cause for the observed responses. The rapid female elevation rise might imply future disruption of established social structures, altering intra- and intersexual competition for roosts and food. Given the global decline in insect populations, larger bats might face future difficulties in finding food to sustain their body size, increasing mortality. However, the full impact of such changes on bat fitness remains unexplored and warrants further investigation, including other bat populations. This knowledge is crucial for informing conservation in the face of ongoing climate change and preserving the ecosystem services bats deliver in riparian ecosystems.

Unveiling the Potential Distribution of the Highly Threatened Madeira Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus maderensis): Do Different Evolutionary Significant Units Exist?

The isolation of islands has played a significant role in shaping the unique evolutionary histories of many species of flora and fauna, including bats. One notable example is the Madeira pipistrelle (Pipistrellus maderensis), which inhabits the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Despite the high biogeographic and conservation importance of this species, there is limited information on its ecology and evolutionary history across different archipelagos. In our study, we employed species distribution models (SDMs) to identify suitable habitats for the Madeira pipistrelle and determine the environmental factors influencing its distribution. Additionally, we conducted molecular comparisons using mitochondrial DNA data from various Macaronesian islands. Molecular analyses provided compelling evidence for the presence of distinct Evolutionary Significant Units on the different archipelagos. We identified distinct haplotypes in the populations of Madeira and the Canary Islands, with a genetic distance ranging from a minimum of 2.4% to a maximum of 3.3% between samples from different archipelagos. In support of this, SDMs highlighted relevant dissimilarities between the environmental requirements of the populations of the three archipelagos, particularly the climatic niche. Our research demonstrates that deeper investigations that combine ecological, morphological, and genetic areas are necessary to implement tailored conservation strategies.

Pest suppression by bats and management strategies to favour it: a global review.

Fighting insect pests is a major challenge for agriculture worldwide, and biological control and integrated pest management constitute well-recognised, cost-effective ways to prevent and overcome this problem. Bats are important arthropod predators globally and, in recent decades, an increasing number of studies have focused on the role of bats as natural enemies of agricultural pests. This review assesses the state of knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by bats as pest consumers at a global level and provides recommendations that may favour the efficiency of pest predation by bats. Through a systematic review, we assess evidence for predation, the top-down effect of bats on crops and the economic value of ecosystem services these mammals provide, describing the different methodological approaches used in a total of 66 reviewed articles and 18 agroecosystem types. We also provide a list of detailed conservation measures and management recommendations found in the scientific literature that may favour the delivery of this important ecosystem service, including actions aimed at restoring bat populations in agroecosystems. The most frequent recommendations include increasing habitat heterogeneity, providing additional roosts, and implementing laws to protect bats and reduce agrochemical use. However, very little evidence is available on the direct consequences of these practices on bat insectivory in farmland. Additionally, through a second in-depth systematic review of scientific articles focused on bat diet and, as part of the ongoing European Cost Action project CA18107, we provide a complete list of 2308 documented interactions between bat species and their respective insect pest prey. These pertain to 81 bat species belonging to 36 different genera preying upon 760 insect pests from 14 orders in agroecosystems and other habitats such as forest or urban areas. The data set is publicly available and updatable.

A species-level trait dataset of bats in Europe and beyond.

Knowledge of species' functional traits is essential for understanding biodiversity patterns, predicting the impacts of global environmental changes, and assessing the efficiency of conservation measures. Bats are major components of mammalian diversity and occupy a variety of ecological niches and geographic distributions. However, an extensive compilation of their functional traits and ecological attributes is still missing. Here we present EuroBaTrait 1.0, the most comprehensive and up-to-date trait dataset covering 47 European bat species. The dataset includes data on 118 traits including genetic composition, physiology, morphology, acoustic signature, climatic associations, foraging habitat, roost type, diet, spatial behaviour, life history, pathogens, phenology, and distribution. We compiled the bat trait data obtained from three main sources: (i) a systematic literature and dataset search, (ii) unpublished data from European bat experts, and (iii) observations from large-scale monitoring programs. EuroBaTrait is designed to provide an important data source for comparative and trait-based analyses at the species or community level. The dataset also exposes knowledge gaps in species, geographic and trait coverage, highlighting priorities for future data collection.

Admittance to Wildlife Rehabilitation Centres Points to Adverse Effects of Climate Change on Insectivorous Bats.

Climate change is exerting a broad range of (mostly adverse) effects on biodiversity, and more are expected under future scenarios. Impacts on species that deliver key ecosystem services, such as bats, are especially concerning, so their better understanding is key to preventing or mitigating them. Due to their physiological requirements, bats are especially sensitive to environmental temperatures and water availability, and heatwave-related mortality has been reported for flying foxes and, more anecdotally, other bat species. For temperate regions, to date, no study has highlighted an association between temperature extremes and bat mortality, mostly due to the difficulty of relying on data series covering long timespans. Heatwaves may affect bats, causing thermal shock and acute dehydration so bats can fall from the roost and, in some cases, are rescued by the public and brought to wildlife rehabilitation centres (WRCs). In our work, we considered a dataset spanning over 20 years of bat admittance to Italian WRCs, covering 5842 bats, and hypothesised that in summer, the number of admitted bats will increase in hotter weeks and young bats will be more exposed to heat stress than adults. We confirmed our first hypothesis for both the overall sample and three out of five synurbic species for which data were available, whereas hot weeks affected both young and adults, pointing to an especially concerning effect on bat survival and reproduction. Although our study is correlative, the existence of a causative relationship between high temperatures and grounded bats is still the best explanation for the recorded patterns. We urge such a relationship to be explored via extensive monitoring of urban bat roosts to inform appropriate management of bat communities in such environments and preserve the precious ecosystem services such mammals provide, especially insectivory services.

Molecular Survey of Toxoplasma gondii in Wild Mammals of Southern Italy.

Systematic wildlife surveillance is important to aid the prevention of zoonotic infections that jeopardize human health and undermine biodiversity. Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic zoonotic protozoan that can infect all endothermic vertebrates, causing severe disease in immunocompromised humans and cases of congenital transmission. Humans can be infected by ingestion of raw meat containing bradyzoites or water contaminated by oocysts. In our study, we assessed the potential circulation of Toxoplasma gondii in wild mammals by performing surveillance in the Campania region (southern Italy) and surveyed its presence from 2020 to 2022 within the framework of the Regional Plans for Wildlife Surveillance. In detail, 211 individuals belonging to five wild mammals (wolf, fox, wild boar, badger, and roe deer) underwent necropsy and the organs were analyzed by real-time PCR for the detection of the parasite. Toxoplasma gondii was found in 21.8% (46/211) of the subjects examined. No statistically significant differences were noticed between the prevalence and the host's trophic level or age, rejecting the hypotheses that Toxoplasma gondii will have a higher prevalence in top predators and adult individuals, respectively. Our work emphasized the high circulation of Toxoplasma gondii in wildlife and remarked on the critical role of anthropized areas where domestic cats and wildlife may come into contact, urging a systematic surveillance.

Bat responses to climate change: a systematic review.

Understanding how species respond to climate change is key to informing vulnerability assessments and designing effective conservation strategies, yet research efforts on wildlife responses to climate change fail to deliver a representative overview due to inherent biases. Bats are a species-rich, globally distributed group of organisms that are thought to be particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change because of their high surface-to-volume ratios and low reproductive rates. We systematically reviewed the literature on bat responses to climate change to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps and biases and highlight future research needs. We found that studies are geographically biased towards Europe, North America and Australia, and temperate and Mediterranean biomes, thus missing a substantial proportion of bat diversity and thermal responses. Less than half of the published studies provide concrete evidence for bat responses to climate change. For over a third of studied bat species, response evidence is only based on predictive species distribution models. Consequently, the most frequently reported responses involve range shifts (57% of species) and changes in patterns of species diversity (26%). Bats showed a variety of responses, including both positive (e.g. range expansion and population increase) and negative responses (range contraction and population decrease), although responses to extreme events were always negative or neutral. Spatial responses varied in their outcome and across families, with almost all taxonomic groups featuring both range expansions and contractions, while demographic responses were strongly biased towards negative outcomes, particularly among Pteropodidae and Molossidae. The commonly used correlative modelling approaches can be applied to many species, but do not provide mechanistic insight into behavioural, physiological, phenological or genetic responses. There was a paucity of experimental studies (26%), and only a small proportion of the 396 bat species covered in the examined studies were studied using long-term and/or experimental approaches (11%), even though they are more informative about the effects of climate change. We emphasise the need for more empirical studies to unravel the multifaceted nature of bats' responses to climate change and the need for standardised study designs that will enable synthesis and meta-analysis of the literature. Finally, we stress the importance of overcoming geographic and taxonomic disparities through strengthening research capacity in the Global South to provide a more comprehensive view of terrestrial biodiversity responses to climate change.

A First Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Circulation in Bats of Central-Southern Italy.

One serious concern associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is that the virus might spill back from humans to wildlife, which would render some animal species reservoirs of the human virus. We assessed the potential circulation of SARS-CoV-2 caused by reverse infection from humans to bats, by performing bat surveillance from different sites in Central-Southern Italy. We restricted our survey to sampling techniques that are minimally invasive and can therefore be broadly applied by non-medical operators such as bat workers. We collected 240 droppings or saliva from 129 bats and tested them using specific and general primers for SARS-CoV-2 and coronaviruses, respectively. All samples (127 nasal swabs and 113 faecal droppings) were negative for SARS-CoV-2, and these results were confirmed by testing the samples with the Droplet Digital PCR. Additionally, pancoronavirus end-point RT-PCR was performed, and no sample showed specific bands. This outcome is a first step towards a better understanding of the reverse transmission of this virus to bats. Although the occurrence of a reverse zoonotic pattern can only be fully established by serological testing, the latter might represent an in-depth follow-up to a broad-scale preliminary assessment performed with our approach. We encourage the systematic surveillance of bats to help prevent reverse zoonotic episodes that would jeopardize human health, as well as biodiversity conservation and management.

Bats mimic hymenopteran insect sounds to deter predators.

Mimicry is one of the most fascinating phenomena in nature1. Mimicry traits often reflect complex, finely tuned, and sometimes extravagant relationships among species and have evolved to deceive predators or prey. Indeed, mimicry has most often evolved to discourage predation: the 'mimic' exhibits phenotypic convergence towards a non-related 'model' organism which is inedible or harmful, so that a given predator, or 'receiver', will refrain from attacking or ingesting the mimic. Traditionally, mimicry is mainly evident and has been mainly studied in the visual domain. Here, we report experiments that document the first case of interspecific acoustic mimicry in a mammal and demonstrate that the distress calls the greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) broadcasts when handled imitate sounds of stinging bees or wasps to discourage the bat's avian predators.

Bat selfies: photographic surveys of flying bats.

The recent pandemic and other environmental concerns have resulted in restrictions on research and surveys involving capture and handling bats. While acoustic surveys have been widely used as an alternative survey method, in this study, we show how photographic surveys can offer an important contribution to study and survey bats. We outline approaches, using high speed flash and automated trip beams to obtain photos of flying bats of sufficient quality for reliable identification of species. We show, through a series of examples of setups and photographs, that photography is effective for surveying bats at a variety of sites, where bats roost, drink, and forage. We note, however, that photographic surveys cannot replace capture in all situations. In addition, although photographing bats is less invasive than capturing them, it can involve disturbance, so we stress the importance of minimizing the impact of such operations on bats. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42991-022-00233-7.

Functional correlates of skull shape in Chiroptera: feeding and echolocation adaptations.

Morphological, functional, and behavioral adaptations of bats are among the most diverse within mammals. A strong association between bat skull morphology and feeding behavior has been suggested previously. However, morphological variation related to other drivers of adaptation, in particular echolocation, remains understudied. We assessed variation in skull morphology with respect to ecology (diet and emission type) and function (bite force, masticatory muscles and echolocation characteristics) using geometric morphometrics and comparative methods. Our study suggests that variation in skull shape of 10 bat families is the result of adaptations to broad dietary categories and sound emission types (oral or nasal). Skull shape correlates with echolocation parameters only in a subsample of insectivorous species, possibly because they (almost) entirely rely on this sensory system for locating and capturing prey. Insectivores emitting low frequencies are characterized by a ventrally tilted rostrum, a trait not associated with feeding parameters. This result questions the validity of a trade-off between feeding and echolocation function. Our study advances understanding of the relationship between skull morphology and specific features of echolocation and suggests that evolutionary constraints due to echolocation may differ between different groups within the Chiroptera.

COVID-19, media coverage of bats and related Web searches: a turning point for bat conservation?

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is genomically similar to a SARS-like beta-coronavirus found in Asian rhinolophid bats. This evolutionary relationship impressed the global media, which then emphasised bats as key actors in the spillover that resulted in the pandemic. In this study, we highlight changes in the traditional and new media coverage of bats and in Internet search volumes that occurred since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.We analysed Google and Wikipedia searches for bats and coronaviruses in 21 countries and eight languages, as well as television broadcasts in the USA, some of which have global coverage, between January 2016 and December 2020. In January 2020, the amount of television news about bats boomed, and news associated with the term 'bat' shifted to COVID-19-related topics. A nearly identical pattern was observed in Google searches during 2020 at the global scale. The daily time series of television coverage and Internet search volumes on bats and coronavirus in the USA covaried in the first quarter of 2020, in line with the existence of a media bubble. Time-series analysis revealed that both the Google Trends index and visits to Wikipedia pages about bats boomed in early 2020, despite the fact that this time of year is usually characterised by low search volumes.Media coverage emphasised, correctly or not, the role of bats in the COVID-19 pandemic and amplified public interest in bats worldwide. The public image of these mammals, in many cases threatened and important ecosystem service providers, was seriously compromised. We therefore recommend that policymakers and journalists prioritise scientifically accurate communication campaigns about bats, which would help counteract the surge in bat persecution, and leverage interest towards positive human-bat interactions.

SARS­CoV­2, el virus causante de la pandemia COVID­19, es genómicamente símil al SARS­tipo beta­coronavirus encontrado en los murciélagos rinolófidos asiáticos. Esta relación evolutiva impresionó a los medios mundialmente, hasta tal punto que se ha enfatizado el papel de los murciélagos como uno de los principales vectores en la expansión de la pandemia. En este estudio, se resaltan los cambios producidos en la percepción de los murciélagos por los medios de comunicación (nuevos y tradicionales), y en las búsquedas en Internet que ocurrieron desde el inicio de la pandemia COVID­19 en 2020.Para ello se han analizado las búsquedas del término 'murciélago' en Google y Wikipedia en 21 países y ocho lenguas, así como las retransmisiones televisivas en EE.UU. (algunas de las cuales con cobertura global) entre enero 2016 y diciembre 2020. En enero 2020, la cantidad de noticias televisadas sobre murciélagos se disparó, y el número de noticias previamente asociadas con el término 'murciélago' cambiaron por temáticas relacionadas con el COVID­19. Un patrón idéntico puede ser observado a escala global en las búsquedas de Google durante el 2020. La serie temporal de cobertura televisiva y búsquedas en internet sobre murciélagos y coronavirus en EE.UU. covaría durante el primer cuarto del 2020, en líneo con la existencia de la burbuja mediática. El análisis de la cobertura diaria televisiva revela que tanto el índice Google Trend como las visitas a páginas de Wikipedia sobre murciélagos incrementaron al comienzo del 2020, a pesar de que esta época del año suele caracterizarse por bajos volúmenes de búsqueda.La cobertura mediática enfatizó, correctamente o no, el papel de los murciélagos en la propagación de la pandemia COVID­19, ampliando el interés público a lo largo del globo. La imagen pública de estos mamíferos, en muchos casos especies amenazadas o proveedoras de importantes funciones ecosistémicas, ha sido seriamente comprometida. Por lo tanto, se recomienda a periodistas y responsables políticos la priorización de campañas de comunicación científicamente fundamentadas que ayuden a contrarrestar este aumento en la persecución de los murciélagos aprovechando el interés actual para concienciar al público de sus interacciones positivas con el hombre.

Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Bats show responses to anthropogenic stressors linked to changes in other ecosystem components such as insects, and as K-selected mammals, exhibit fast population declines. This speciose, widespread mammal group shows an impressive trophic diversity and provides key ecosystem services. For these and other reasons, bats might act as suitable bioindicators in many environmental contexts. However, few studies have explicitly tested this potential, and in some cases, stating that bats are useful bioindicators more closely resembles a slogan to support conservation than a well-grounded piece of scientific evidence. Here, we review the available information and highlight the limitations that arise in using bats as bioindicators. Based on the limited number of studies available, the use of bats as bioindicators is highly promising and warrants further investigation in specific contexts such as river quality, urbanisation, farming practices, forestry, bioaccumulation, and climate change. Whether bats may also serve as surrogate taxa remains a controversial yet highly interesting matter. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators include taxonomical issues, sampling problems, difficulties in associating responses with specific stressors, and geographically biased or delayed responses. Overall, we urge the scientific community to test bat responses to specific stressors in selected ecosystem types and develop research networks to explore the geographic consistency of such responses. The high cost of sampling equipment (ultrasound detectors) is being greatly reduced by technological advances, and the legal obligation to monitor bat populations already existing in many countries such as those in the EU offers an important opportunity to accomplish two objectives (conservation and bioindication) with one action.

Zoonotic Risk: One More Good Reason Why Cats Should Be Kept Away from Bats.

Bats are often unfairly depicted as the direct culprit in the current COVID-19 pandemic, yet the real causes of this and other zoonotic spillover events should be sought in the human impact on the environment, including the spread of domestic animals. Here, we discuss bat predation by cats as a phenomenon bringing about zoonotic risks and illustrate cases of observed, suspected or hypothesized pathogen transmission from bats to cats, certainly or likely following predation episodes. In addition to well-known cases of bat rabies, we review other diseases that affect humans and might eventually reach them through cats that prey on bats. We also examine the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19, from domestic cats to bats, which, although unlikely, might generate a novel wildlife reservoir in these mammals, and identify research and management directions to achieve more effective risk assessment, mitigation or prevention. Overall, not only does bat killing by cats represent a potentially serious threat to biodiversity conservation, but it also bears zoonotic implications that can no longer be neglected.

Artificial illumination influences niche segregation in bats.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a pervasive form of pollution largely affecting wildlife, from individual behaviour to community structure and dynamics. As nocturnal mammals, bats are often adversely affected by ALAN, yet some "light-opportunistic" species exploit it by hunting insects swarming near lights. Here we used two potentially competing pipistrelle species as models, Kuhl's (Pipistrellus kuhlii) and common (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) pipistrelles, both known to forage in artificially illuminated areas. We set our study in a mountainous area of central Italy, where only recently did the two species become syntopic. We applied spatial modelling and radiotracking to contrast potential vs. actual environmental preferences by the two pipistrelles. Species distribution models and niche analysis showed a large interspecific niche overlap, including a preference for illuminated areas, presenting a potential competition scenario. Pipistrellus pipistrellus association with ALAN, however, was weakened by adding P. kuhlii as a biotic variable to the model. Radiotracking showed that the two species segregated habitats at a small spatial scale and that P. kuhlii used artificially illuminated sites much more frequently than P. pipistrellus, despite both species potentially being streetlamp foragers. We demonstrate that ALAN influences niche segregation between two potentially competing species, confirming its pervasive effects on species and community dynamics, and provide an example of how light pollution and species' habitat preferences may weave a tapestry of complex ecological interactions.

Efficient Syntheses of Biobased Terephthalic Acid, p-Toluic Acid, and p-Methylacetophenone via One-Pot Catalytic Aerobic Oxidation of Monoterpene Derived Bio-p-cymene.

An efficient elevated-pressure catalytic oxidative process (2.5 mol % Co(NO3)2, 2.5 mol % MnBr2, air (30 bar), 125 °C, acetic acid, 6 h) has been developed to oxidize p-cymene into crystalline white terephthalic acid (TA) in ∼70% yield. Use of this mixed Co2+/Mn2+ catalytic system is key to obtaining high 70% yields of TA at relatively low reaction temperatures (125 °C) in short reaction times (6 h), which is likely to be due to the synergistic action of bromine and nitrate radicals in the oxidative process. Recycling studies have demonstrated that the mixed metal catalysts present in recovered mother liquors could be recycled three times in successive p-cymene oxidation reactions with no loss in catalytic activity or TA yield. Partial oxidation of p-cymene to give p-methylacetophenone (p-MA) in 55-60% yield can be achieved using a mixed CoBr2/Mn(OAc)2 catalytic system under 1 atm air for 24 h, while use of Co(NO3)2/MnBr2 under 1 atm O2 for 24 h gave p-toluic acid in 55-60% yield. Therefore, access to these simple catalytic aerobic conditions enables multiple biorenewable bulk terpene feedstocks (e.g., crude sulfate turpentine, turpentine, cineole, and limonene) to be converted into synthetically useful bio-p-MA, bio-p-toluic acid, and bio-TA (and hence bio-polyethylene terephthalate) as part of a terpene based biorefinery.

K-doped CeO2-ZrO2 for CO2 thermochemical catalytic splitting.

Green syngas production is a sustainable energy-development goal. Thermochemical H2O/CO2 splitting is a very promising sustainable technology allowing the production of H2 and CO with only oxygen as the by-product. CeO2-ZrO2 systems are well known thermochemical splitting catalysts, since they combine stability at high temperature with rapid kinetics and redox cyclability. However, redox performances of these materials must be improved to allow their use in large scale plants. K-doped systems show good redox properties and repeatable performances. In this work, we studied the effect of potassium content on the performances of ceria-zirconia for CO2 splitting. A kinetic model was developed to get insight into the nature of the catalytic sites. Fitting results confirmed the hypothesis about the existence of two types of redox sites in the investigated catalytic systems and their role at different K contents. Moreover, the model was used to predict the influence of key parameters, such as the process conditions.