During 2013, we collected and tested ticks for Heartland virus (HRTV), a recently described human pathogen in the genus Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae), from six sites in northwestern Missouri. Five sites were properties owned by HRTV patients, and the sixth was a conservation area that yielded virus in ticks during 2012. We collected 39,096 ticks representing five species; however, two species, Amblyomma americanum (L.) (97.6%) and Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (2.3%), accounted for nearly all ticks collected. We detected 60 HRTV-positive tick pools and all were composed of A americanum: 53 pools of nymphs, six pools of male adults, and one pool of female adults. This is the first record of HRTV in adult ticks. Virus was detected at five properties that yielded A. americanum ticks, including properties owned by four of five patients. Virus was detected at two sites that yielded virus in 2012. Detection of virus in multiple years indicates that the virus persists in ticks within a relatively small geographic area, although infection rates (IR) may vary greatly among sites and between years at a site. IR per 1,000 A. americanum in northwestern Missouri during the April-July 2013 study period were as follows: all adults, IR = 1.13; adult females, IR = 0.33; adult males, IR = 1.90; and nymphs, IR = 1.79. The IR in nymphs, the stage with the largest data set, corresponds to 1/559 infected ticks. Having robust estimates of IR in various stages for A. americanum should lead to more accurate public health messaging and a better understanding of virus transmission.

Significant gaps remain in understanding the response of plant reproduction to environmental change. This is partly because measuring reproduction in long-lived plants requires direct observation over many years and such datasets have rarely been made publicly available. Here we introduce MASTREE+, a data set that collates reproductive time-series data from across the globe and makes these data freely available to the community. MASTREE+ includes 73,828 georeferenced observations of annual reproduction (e.g. seed and fruit counts) in perennial plant populations worldwide.These observations consist of 5971 population-level time-series from 974 species in 66 countries. The mean and median time-series length is 12.4 and 10 years respectively, and the data set includes 1122 series that extend over at least two decades (≥20 years of observations). For a subset of well-studied species, MASTREE+ includes extensive replication of time-series across geographical and climatic gradients. Herewe describe the open-access data set, available as a.csv file, and we introduce an associated web-based app for data exploration. MASTREE+ will provide the basis for improved understanding of the response of long-lived plant reproduction to environmental change. Additionally, MASTREE+ will enable investigation of the ecology and evolution of reproductive strategies in perennial plants, and the role of plant reproduction as a driver of ecosystem dynamics.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract