Chestnut short-tailed bats, Carollia castanea, and Seba's short-tailed bats, C. perspicillata (Phyllostomidae), were radio-tracked (N = 1593 positions) in lowland rain forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Orellana Province, Ecuador. For 11 C. castanea, mean home range was 6.8 ± 2.2 ha, mean core-use area was 1.7 ± 0.8 ha, and mean long axis across home range was 438 ± 106 m. For three C. perspicillata, mean home range was 5.5 ± 1.7 ha, mean core-use area was 1.3 ± 0.6 ha, and mean long axis was 493 ± 172 m. Groups of less than five C. castanea occupied day-roosts in earthen cavities that undercut banks the Tiputini River. Carollia perspicillata used tree hollows and buildings as day-roosts. Interspecific and intraspecific overlap among short-tailed bats occurred in core-use areas associated with clumps of fruiting Piper hispidum (peppers) and Cecropia sciadophylla. Piper hispidum seeds were present in 80 percent of the fecal samples from C. castanea and 56 percent of samples from C. perspicillata. Carollia perspicillata handled pepper fruits significantly faster than C. castanea; however, C. castanea commenced foraging before C. perspicillata emerged from day-roosts. Evidence for exploitative competition between C. castanea and C. perspicillata is suggested by our observations that 95 percent of ripe P. hispidum fruits available at sunset disappear before sunrise (N = 74 marked fruits). Piper hispidum plants produced zero to 12 ripe infructescences per plant each night during peak production. Few ripe infructescences of P. hispidum were available during the dry season; however, ripe infructescences of C. sciadophylla, remained abundant.Abstract in Spanish is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp.

Historically, southern New England has supported one of the most productive American lobster (Homarus americanus) fisheries of the northeast United States. Recently, the region has seen dramatic declines in lobster populations coincident with a trend of increasingly stressful summer warmth and shell disease. We report significant declines in the abundance, distribution, and size composition of juvenile lobsters that have accompanied the warming trend in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, since the first comprehensive survey of lobster nurseries conducted there in 1990. We used diver-based visual surveys and suction sampling in 1990, 2011, and 2012, supplemented by post-larval collectors in 2011 and 2012. In 1990, lobster nurseries extended from the outer coast into the mid-sections of the bay, but by 2011 and 2012 they were largely restricted to the outer coast and deeper water at the mouth of the bay. Among five new study sites selected by the lobster fishing industry for the 2011 and 2012 surveys, the deepest site on the outer coast (15–17 m depth) harboured some of the highest lobster densities in the survey. Separate fixed site hydrographic monitoring at 13 locations in the bay by the Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife recorded an approximately 2.0°C increase in summer surface temperatures over the period, with 2012 being the warmest on record. Additional monitoring of bottom temperatures, dissolved oxygen and pH at our sampling sites in 2011 and 2012 indicated conditions falling below physiological optima for lobsters during summer. The invasion of the Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, since the 1990s may also be contributing to declines of juvenile lobster shallow zones (<5 m) in this region. Because lobster populations appear increasingly restricted to deeper and outer coastal waters of southern New England, further monitoring of settlement and nursery habitat in deep water is warranted.

Professional societies play a unique role in our personal and professional lives as spaces for connection and as regulatory entities. Often composed of volunteers from a variety of backgrounds, professional societies can guide the cultural norms and expectations of an industry by acting as critical leaders for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The present manuscript explains how professional societies, like the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS), can embrace transdisciplinary approaches to create more inclusive (in)tangible spaces to address serious problems facing industries today. Climate change, sexism, and racism, are examples of “wicked” problems that cannot be solved using existing modes of inquiry and decision making because of their complex and interrelated nature. As members of OBFS, a professional society dedicated to the advancement of field-based research, we explain how transdisciplinarity can and has been used to begin addressing serious issues like racism and sexism in field-based research and provide steps for future professional societies to engage in transdisciplinary thinking. We close with examples of our own transdisciplinary work developed through our membership within OBFS.

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