JAMA Network launches JAMA+ Women's Health

JAMA Network

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Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, the JAMA+ Women’s Health Editor in Chief, will curate the site.

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Chicago, IL — The JAMA Network announces the launch of JAMA+ Women’s Health, a new digital resource designed to elevate the visibility and accessibility of trusted, peer-reviewed content that advances health care for women across the globe.

Recognizing that women’s health is more comprehensive than reproductive care, gynecologic and breast cancer, and menopause, JAMA+ Women’s Health will showcase rigorous studies that include or focus exclusively on women from across JAMA and the 12 JAMA Network journals.

Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, the JAMA+ Women’s Health Editor in Chief, will curate the site. 

“There’s been so much conversation about personalization of medicine, getting down to a single individual” says Brubaker. “But if we even made the big step forward to understand the differences in genetic and physiology that women have, we will improve health care outcomes.” 

JAMA+ Women’s Health curates resources from across the JAMA Network: 

• A select library of hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and reviews  

• Multimedia content including expert interviews, podcasts, and explainer features 

• Content that highlights underrecognized or underutilized approaches 

“I understand the critical importance of women’s health scholarship, and I know that we need more of it. It’s essential that top journals actively promote this work,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, M.D., Ph.D., M.A.S., Editor in Chief of JAMA and the JAMA Network. “At the JAMA Network, we have a broad and influential platform to do just that. JAMA+ Women’s Health is our way of amplifying the rich, deep content published throughout our network. Under the leadership of Dr. Linda Brubaker, this vital scholarship will receive the visibility and recognition it deserves.”

Learn more about JAMA+ channels and check out JAMA+ AI. 

 

For more information, contact JAMA Network Media Relations at 312-464-JAMA (5252) or email media relations.

Good vibrations could revolutionize assisted reproductive technology

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. – In the quest to address infertility, Cornell University researchers have developed a groundbreaking device that could simplify and automate oocyte cumulus removal, a critical step in assisted reproductive technologies.

Their vibration-powered chip not only simplifies a complex procedure but also extends it to areas of the world lacking skilled embryologists or well-funded labs—reducing overall costs. This offers hope to millions of couples struggling with infertility – and makes fertility treatments more accessible worldwide.

“This platform is a potential game-changer,” said Alireza Abbaspourrad, associate professor of food chemistry and ingredient technology in food science. “It reduces the need for skilled technicians, minimizes contamination risks and ensures consistent results – all while being portable and cost-effective.”

Abbaspourrad is co-author of “On-Chip Oocyte Cumulus Removal using Vibration Induced Flow,” published Sept. 5 in the journal Lab on a Chip.

Doctors treating infertility need to do a critical step: gently separate protective cumulus cells from oocytes, the developing egg cells. The process, known as cumulus removal (CR), is essential for evaluating oocyte maturity before spermatozoon injection, or ensuring successful fertilization after insemination in in vitro fertilization.

Traditionally, CR relies on manual pipetting: by flushing the single oocyte repeatedly with a micropipette, cumulus cells are detached from the oocyte. However, the technique demands precision, expertise and significant time. Errors can lead to damaged oocytes or failed fertilization, making the procedure a delicate and labor-intensive task.

The team’s innovation: a disposable, open-surface chip that uses vibrations, which they call vibration-induced flow, to automate CR. The chip features a spiral array of micropillars that create a whirling flow when vibrated, separating smaller cumulus cells from larger oocytes.

“The process is fast, efficient, noninvasive and more consistent, while reducing manual labor and preserving embryo development outcomes,” said Amirhossein Favakeh, a doctoral candidate in Abbaspourrad’s lab and a co-author of the study. “The oocytes remain safely in the loading chamber, while the cumulus cells are swept into an adjacent collection well.”

To ensure the safety of the technique, the team compared fertilization and embryo development rates between oocytes denuded manually and those treated with vibration induced flow. The results were nearly identical: fertilization rates were 90.7% for manual pipetting and 93.1% for vibration induced flow, while the rate of formation of blastocysts, balls of cells formed early in a pregnancy, were 50.0% and 43.1%, respectively.

“This shows that our method doesn’t compromise the developmental potential of the oocytes,” Abbaspourrad said.

“Ordinarily, the whole process is costly and delicate; clinics invest a lot of time in training, and it is very dependent on human resources,” Abbaspourrad said. “With this, you don’t need a highly trained human to do it. And what is really important is there is almost no chance of damaging or losing the cell.”

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story. 

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Journal

Lab on a Chip

DOI

10.1039/D5LC00414D 

Article Title

On-Chip Oocyte Cumulus Removal using Vibration Induced Flow

Article Publication Date

5-Sep-2025

 

More scrutiny of domestic fishing fleets at ports could help deter illegal fishing

Stanford University

In brief: 

• Countries that have ratified the Port State Measures Agreement, which entered into force in 2016, are required to designate certain ports for foreign vessels to land their fish and undergo standardized inspections to identify illegal catches. 

• As more countries adopted the internationally binding agreement between 2016 and 2021, the distance that foreign fishing vessels needed to travel to reach a port within a country that had not ratified the treaty doubled.

• Domestic fishing vessels account for the majority of port visits around the world. Inconsistent implementation of the treaty’s standards across foreign and domestic fleets may unintentionally incentivize more vessels to operate under domestic regulations and circumvent port inspections required by the Port State Measures Agreement.

 

An internationally binding treaty known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) has made it harder for vessels fishing outside national waters to avoid port inspections for illegal catches, but inconsistent standards across foreign versus domestic fleets could undermine its effectiveness, according to a new study. 

Illegal fishing costs countries billions of dollars in lost revenue each year due to the diversion of fish from legitimate markets. It also threatens millions of coastal livelihoods, imperils food and nutrition security, and undermines the environmental sustainability of fisheries.

“Given the potential of the PSMA to reduce illegal fishing, we wanted to explore how vessels fishing in international waters have behaved differently since it entered into force,” said Elizabeth Selig, lead author of the study published Sept. 5 in Science Advances and the managing director of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. “Understanding patterns of vessel behavior can help countries that have ratified the PSMA identify what they might need to do to strengthen implementation.” 

All seafood must pass through a port to enter the market. Countries and territories that have ratified the PSMA, also known as Parties to the PSMA, are required to designate certain ports for foreign vessels to land their fish, conduct standardized inspections of arriving vessels, and deny entry of illegal catches. 

Related: Study reveals owners of fish taxis and the vessels they support

Article 20 of the PSMA stipulates that inspections of domestic vessels should be as effective as measures applied to foreign vessels, but it does not specify whether the two approaches should be the same. The PSMA entered into force in 2016. As of September 5, 2025, there were 84 Parties to the PSMA, including the European Union, which signed as one party.

Sidebar: Fishing vessel flags Every fishing vessel is registered to a single country known as its “flag state,” which determines who has jurisdiction over the vessel and applicable laws onboard. A vessel is considered domestic if it offloads its catch in the same country as its flag state, and foreign if it offloads its catch in a different country.

Signs of progress

The co-authors looked at how fishing vessel behavior changed in the five years before and after the PSMA entered into force, based on satellite data curated by the nonprofit Global Fishing Watch. Their analysis focused on vessels larger than 300 gross tons, which account for the majority of fishing vessels in international waters, also known as the high seas. 

The researchers estimated the size of catches delivered to ports within and outside of Parties to the PSMA by analyzing a vessel’s engine power consumption and hours spent fishing. Their analysis revealed that the proportion of estimated catches landed in Parties to the PSMA doubled from 2016 to 2021. 

The increase corresponds with more countries ratifying the PSMA, thereby lengthening the distance vessels must travel to land their catches in non-PSMA countries. From 2016-2021, the co-authors found that fishing vessels had to travel nearly twice as far to reach a non-PSMA country. 

“These results indicate it’s getting harder for fishing vessels to avoid landing in ports where countries have adopted the PSMA,” said co-author Jim Leape, the William and Eva Price Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and co-director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. 

However, the co-authors also found that fishing vessels landed a growing share of their estimated catches at domestic ports, rising from 31% in 2016 to 46% in 2021, warranting a closer look at domestic fleets.

Domestic vessels dominate

In 2021, domestic vessels fishing on the high seas accounted for 66% of port visits globally, compared to 45% of port visits in 2015, the year before when the PSMA entered into force.

“The dominance of domestic vessels in port visits globally highlights an opportunity for PSMA Parties to strengthen implementation of Article 20 by extending similar port state measures for their domestic fleets. In many cases, doing so equitably will require targeted support to bolster the human, technical, and financial capacity of port states,” said co-author Colette Wabnitz, lead scientist at the Center for Ocean Solutions. 

Related: Mapping risks of illegal fishing and labor abuse

Greater attention to domestic vessels is also important because fishing vessels can opportunistically change their flags to act or operate as domestic vessels. 

The researchers looked at fishing vessels that switched to a new flag state in the five years before and after the treaty entered into force. After the PSMA entered into force, they observed a 30% increase in port visits to PSMA Parties by vessels that had changed their flags, compared to the 2010-2015 baseline period. By switching to a domestic flag, fishing vessels could circumvent PSMA inspections.

“We hope this study encourages more attention on domestic fleets and consistent implementation of port state measures across both foreign and domestic fleets,” said Selig. “Monitoring and inspecting vessels at port is logistically easier and more cost-effective than piecemeal enforcement at sea and is one more tool to deter illegal fishing.”

 

Acknowledgements: 

Wabnitz is also affiliated with The University of British Columbia and the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. Other co-authors from the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions include senior data scientist Shinnosuke Nakayama and Wallenberg Postdoctoral Fellow Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, who is also affiliated with the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and the Natural Capital Project and King Center on Global Development at Stanford. 

Additional co-authors are affiliated with Global Fishing Watch, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Tufts University, and the University of Lincoln. 

The research was supported by the Moore Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Data Collaborative Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC), the Walton Family Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Oceankind, Audacious Project, and a Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence seed grant.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.ads1592 

Article Title

Leveraging port state measures to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing

Article Publication Date

5-Sep-2025

 

Scientists transform plastic waste into efficient CO2 capture materials

From waste to valuable resource: Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method to convert plastic waste into a climate solution for efficient and sustainable CO2 capture, thereby addressing not one, but two major global challenges

University of Copenhagen

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“The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one. By turning waste into a raw material that can actively reduce greenhouse gases, we make an environmental issue part of the solution to the climate crisis,” says Margarita Poderyte from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, lead author of the research paper.

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Credit: Photo: Max Emil Madsen, University of Copenhagen.

As CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere keep rising regardless of years of political intentions to limit emissions, the world’s oceans are drowning in plastics, which threatens marine environments and ecosystems.

The key global problems are often interconnected, and typically, the solution to one problem creates another one while the clock keeps ticking. But what if we could solve several problems at the same time?

It’s almost too good to be true, but a new cutting-edge invention promises to do just that. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method where one man’s trash really does become another man’s “treasure”, when decomposed PET plastic becomes the main ingredient in efficient and sustainable CO2 capture.

We know the material from plastic bottles, textiles, and many other uses: PET plastic is one of the most widely used types of plastic in the world, but when it has served its purpose, it becomes a pressing global environmental issue. This is because it ends up in landfills in many parts of the world, where it breaks down into polluting microplastics that spread to the air, soil and groundwater. A large portion also end up in the oceans.

“The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one. By turning waste into a raw material that can actively reduce greenhouse gases, we make an environmental issue part of the solution to the climate crisis,” says Margarita Poderyte from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, lead author of the research paper disclosing the invention.

The solution is a potential win-win on a global scale, where plastic waste not only does not end up in nature but also becomes an active player in climate mitigation.

With the new chemical technology, researchers can transform PET plastic waste that is overlooked by recyclers into a primary resource in a new form of CO2 sorbent they have developed. The process ‘upcycles’ it to a new material the researchers have named BAETA, which can absorb CO2 out of the atmosphere so efficiently that it easily compares with existing carbon capture technologies.

Sustainable, flexible and scalable

The BAETA material has a powdery structure that can be pelletized, and a chemically ‘upgraded’ surface, which enables it to very effectively bind and chemically capture CO2. Once saturated, CO2 can be released through a heating process allowing the CO2 to be concentrated, collected and stored or converted into a sustainable resource. In practice, the researchers expect the technology to be first installed on industrial plants with exhausts from chimneys passing through BAETA units to cleanse them of CO2.

The research paper is now published in Sciences Advances and describes the chemical process behind the invention. The process is gentle compared to existing technologies and, at the same time, well-suited for industrial scaling.

“The main ingredient is plastic waste that would otherwise have an unsustainable afterlife, and the synthesis we use, where the chemical transformation takes place, is gentler than other materials for CO2 capture because we can make the synthesis in ambient temperatures. It also has the advantage that the technology can be scaled up more easily,” Margarita Poderyte says.

She is seconded by co-author and Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Jiwoong Lee, who highlights the material’s flexibility also.

“One of the impressive things about this material is that it stays effective for a long time. And flexible. It works efficiently from normal room temperature up to about 150 degrees Celsius, making it very useful. With this kind of tolerance to high temperatures, the material can be used at the end of industrial plants where the exhausts are typically hot,” Jiwoong Lee says.

From laboratory to innovation at the end of the chimney

With a potentially revolutionary idea, a proven method and an effective finished product, the researchers are now ready for the next step.

“We see great potential for this material, not just in the lab, but in real-life industrial carbon capture plants. The next big step is scaling up to produce the material in tonnes, and we’re already working to attract investments and make our invention a financially sustainable business venture,” Margaryte Poderyte says.

The technical challenges do not worry the researchers. Instead, the decisive challenge, they say, is to persuade decision-makers to make the necessary investments. If they succeed in that, the invention could ultimately lead to significant changes.

A sea of cheap plastic

Large amounts of PET plastic accumulate in our oceans, damaging ecosystems and breaking down into microplastics, the consequences of which are yet unknown. That sort of plastic is very well suited for the technology.

“If we can get our hands on the highly decomposed PET plastic floating in the world’s oceans, it will be a valuable resource for us as it’s so well suited for upcycling with our method,” Margarita Poderyte says.

The researchers hope that their invention can help to fundamentally change the way we see climate and environmental issues as separate problems.

“We’re not talking about stand-alone issues, nor will the solutions be. Our material can create a very concrete economic incentive to cleanse the oceans of plastic,” Jiwoong Lee says.
 

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Facts: How CO2 capture works

Measured in weight, PET plastic constitutes over 60 percent of carbon, and the material has an inherent chemical and physical ability to maintain the structure.

This ability is enhanced by transforming the plastic by adding a quantity of ethylenediamine, a compound known for its ability to bind CO2.

The process breaks down the plastic from polymer to a monomer, giving the material a chemical composition that is very effective in pulling CO2 out of the air and binding it.

The material is called BAETA.

In industrial plants, the idea is to transmit the exhaust through BETA units, which will cleanse it of CO2. When the BAETA material is saturated, its efficiency decreases; however, CO2 can be released from the plastic through a heating process, restoring its efficiency.

The carbon released can then be stored underground or used in Power2X plants via CO2 utilization.

More info: No conflict with recycling

During the development process, the researchers encountered concerns that their technology could undermine efforts to recycle plastic, which has been heavily invested in. Fortunately, that is not the case, they say.

“In principle, we could use new plastic for our method, but our target is PET plastic that is difficult to recycle because of low quality, coloration or mixed sources – or that has decomposed to such a degree that it’s no longer suitable for recycling. So, this will be a collaboration rather than competition with the efforts to recycle plastic,” Margarita Poderyte says.

 

About the study:

This project is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center in collaboration with the group of Niels Christian Nielsen, Aarhus University.

The following researchers have contributed to the research article:

Margarita Poderyte
Ji-Woong Lee
Arianna Lanza
Rodrigo Lima

Dennis Wilkens Juhl
Kathrine L. Olesen
Niels Chr. Nielsen

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adv5906 

Article Title

Repurposing Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastic Waste to Capture Carbon Dioxide

Article Publication Date

5-Sep-2025

 

Discovery of North America’s role in Asia’s monsoons offers new insights into climate change

University of Bristol

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1. Mechanism Schematic of North American teleconnection to Asian summer monsoon. North American continent creates a heating center in summer. This then creates atmospheric ripple effects, which strengthens North Pacific subtropical high-pressure system and widens the north Hadley cell. This enhanced anticyclone pushes stronger westward flows toward Asia, exciting deeper convection, brings more moisture from the ocean, and thus intensifies rainfall over East and South Asia.

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Credit: Linlin Chen

The study, published today (5 September) in the journal Science Advances, indicates how the heating in North America can trigger remote effects in Asia – this could be further exacerbated by anthropogenic global warming and human modification of the North American land surface. The authors of the study say their findings emphasise the importance of global cooperation in addressing climate change.

Using climate models, scientists from the University of Bristol and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found changes over North America can drive atmospheric patterns that intensify South and East Asian rainfall, with an effect nearly half as strong as the Tibetan Plateau’s influence on East Asian summer rainfall.

While researchers have long known the Asian monsoon can influence the climate far beyond Asia, this latest study is the first to reveal the reverse is also true - that the existence of North American continent has teleconnections across the Pacific Ocean and strengthens the East and South Asian summer monsoon rainfall.

Lead author Linlin Chen, PhD student in Physical Geography at the University of Bristol, said: “In the past few decades, when people talk about what factors would drive such a strong monsoon in Asia, they always looked at the Eurasian and African continents, especially the Himalaya and Tibetan region.

“These are indeed large influences. But we know Earth climate is closely connected, and now we have more evidence to show precisely how.”

The study authors first modelled an idealised ‘water’ world with no continents, and then gradually added continents from Eurasia, Africa and India to produce a basic Asian monsoon system. Australia, Antarctica, North and South America, as well as a simplified Tibetan Plateau were added separately, to see how the Asian monsoon would respond.

Dr Alex Farnsworth, a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, also affiliated with ITP, said: “We initially thought Australia would outperform, as it is the closest landmass not previously considered. But the results surprised everyone.

“North America turns out to be the most important extra continent impacting the Asian monsoon. It’s always exciting when the model reveals something unexpected.”

The team discovered the North American continent creates a heating centre in summer. This then creates atmospheric ripple effects, which strengthens the North Pacific subtropical high-pressure system and widens the north Hadley cell. This enhanced anticyclone pushes stronger westward flows toward Asia, causing a deeper convection and bringing more moisture from the ocean, thus intensifying rainfall over East and South Asia.

The Tibetan Plateau also plays a role but, remarkably, the North American impact is nearly half as strong as that of the Tibetan Plateau over the East Asian summer rainfall. The seasonal rains in Asia sustain more than a billion people. In recent years, people in Asia experienced more extreme flood and drought, which climate scientists suggest is due to global warming, which then causes more extreme climate events.

Co-author Paul Valdes, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Bristol, added: “This study reveals how deeply connected the Earth’s climate systems are: local changes can trigger global effects. Everyone is responsible for both the local and global climate changes.”

 

Idealized continental and orographic configuration. The abbreviations represent continents of Eurasia (Eura), India (Ind), Africa (Afr), Australia (Aus), Antarctica (Ant), North America (NA) and South America (SA). Shading indicates land-sea-mountain mask: green for land (0 m elevation), light blue for ocean, and copper for elevated terrain (Tibet, up to 4,500 m). Dashed rectangles indicate analysis domains: brown for East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) region; purple for Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) region (same in the following figures).

Credit

Linlin Chen

 

june-July-August-September (JJAS) precipitation anomalies from flat-continent sensitivity experiments. Precipitation anomalies (mm/day, shading) show the effects of adding individual continents to the EuraIndAfr baseline: (A) North America (EuraIndAfrNA - EuraIndAfr), (B) South America (EuraIndAfrSA - EuraIndAfr), (C) Australia (EuraIndAfrAus - EuraIndAfr), (D) Antarctica (EuraIndAfrAnt - EuraIndAfr). Inset maps show global land-sea-mountain masks, where white shading highlights the landmass added in each sensitivity experiment.

Credit

Linlin Chen

Journal

Science Advances

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

‘The role of the North American continent in strengthening the Asian summer monsoon’

Article Publication Date

5-Sep-2025

 

Even untouched ecosystems are losing insects at alarming rates, new study finds

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Colorado meadow used for Keith Sockman's 20 year study.

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Credit: Keith Sockman (UNC-Chapel Hill)

A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that insect populations are rapidly declining even in relatively undisturbed landscapes, raising concerns about the health of ecosystems that depend on them. 

Keith Sockman, associate professor of biology at UNC-Chapel Hill, quantified the abundance of flying insects during 15 seasons between 2004 and 2024 on a subalpine meadow in Colorado, a site with 38 years of weather data and minimal direct human impact. He discovered an average annual decline of 6.6% in insect abundance, amounting to a 72.4% drop over the 20-year period. The study also found that this steep decline is associated with rising summer temperatures. 

“Insects have a unique, if inauspicious position in the biodiversity crisis due to the ecological services, such as nutrient cycling and pollination, they provide and to their vulnerability to environmental change,” Sockman said. “Insects are necessary for terrestrial and fresh-water ecosystems to function.” 

The findings address a critical gap in global insect research. While many reports of insect declines focus on habitats altered by human activity, few examine populations in relatively pristine areas. This study demonstrates that dramatic losses can occur even where direct human impacts are minimal, suggesting climate change may be a key driver. 

“Several recent studies report significant insect declines across a variety of human-altered ecosystems, particularly in North America and Europe,” Sockman said. “Most such studies report on ecosystems that have been directly impacted by humans or are surrounded by impacted areas, raising questions about insect declines and their drivers in more natural areas.” 

Sockman emphasizes the urgency of these results for biodiversity conservation: “Mountains are host to disproportionately high numbers of locally adapted endemic species, including insects. Thus, the status of mountains as biodiversity hotspots may be in jeopardy if the declines shown here reflect trends broadly.” 

This research highlights the need for more comprehensive monitoring of insect populations in a variety of landscapes and adds urgency to addressing climate change. By showing that even remote ecosystems are not immune, the study underscores the global scale of the biodiversity crisis. 

The research paper is available online in the journal Ecology at: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.70187 

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Journal

Ecology

DOI

10.1002/ecy.70187 

Article Title

Long-term decline in montane insects under warming summers

Article Publication Date

4-Sep-2025