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- Volume 54, 2023
Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics - Volume 54, 2023
Volume 54, 2023
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Patterns and Evolutionary Consequences of Pleiotropy
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 1–19More LessPleiotropy refers to the phenomenon of one gene or one mutation affecting multiple phenotypic traits. While the concept of pleiotropy is as old as Mendelian genetics, functional genomics has finally allowed the first glimpses of the extent of pleiotropy for a large fraction of genes in a genome. After describing conceptual and operational difficulties in quantifying pleiotropy and the pros and cons of various methods for measuring pleiotropy, I review empirical data on pleiotropy, which generally show an L-shaped distribution of the degree of pleiotropy (i.e., the number of traits affected), with most genes having low pleiotropy. I then review the current understanding of the molecular basis of pleiotropy. In the rest of the review, I discuss evolutionary consequences of pleiotropy, focusing on advances in topics including the cost of complexity, regulatory versus coding evolution, environmental pleiotropy and adaptation, evolution of ageing and other seemingly harmful traits, and evolutionary resolution of pleiotropy.
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Urban Pollination Ecology
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 21–42More LessPollination is an essential component of plant reproduction that is transformed by the novel environmental conditions in cities. We summarize patterns of urban plant reproduction and trace the mechanisms by which urban environments influence pollination, beginning at the level of the individual plant. We then progress through several processes unique to animal-pollinated plants, including plant–pollinator signaling, community-level effects, and emergent plant–pollinator interaction networks. Last, we review pollen movement and plant spatial mating networks. Despite a global signal of reduced pollination in urban, animal-pollinated plants, effects vary among studies, and the extent of pollen dispersal through a city remains difficult to predict. We highlight recent progress, as well as areas where new research will help crystallize our understanding of urban pollination. These advances have the potential to spur exciting new insights into network dynamics and pollen movement, and may ultimately inform the sustainable design of urban conservation and ecosystem services.
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What Amphibians Can Teach Us About the Evolution of Parental Care
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 43–62More LessParenting is considered a key evolutionary innovation that contributed to the diversification and expansion of vertebrates. However, we know little about how such diversity evolved. Amphibians are an ideal group in which to identify the ecological factors that have facilitated or constrained the evolution of different forms of parental care. Among, but also within, the three amphibian orders—Anura, Caudata, and Gymnophiona—there is a high level of variation in habitat use, fertilization mode, mating systems, and parental sex roles. Recent work using broad phylogenetic, experimental, and physiological approaches has helped to uncover the factors that have selected for the evolution of care and transitions between different forms of parenting. Here, we highlight the exceptional diversity of amphibian parental care, emphasize the unique opportunities this group offers for addressing key questions about the evolution of parenting, and give insights into promising novel directions of research.
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Novel Disturbance Regimes and Ecological Responses
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 63–83More LessMany natural disturbances have a strong climate forcing, and concern is rising about how ecosystems will respond to disturbance regimes to which they are not adapted. Novelty can arise either as attributes of the disturbance regime (e.g., frequency, severity, duration) shift beyond their historical ranges of variation or as new disturbance agents not present historically emerge. How much novelty ecological systems can absorb and whether changing disturbance regimes will lead to novel outcomes is determined by the ecological responses of communities, which are also subject to change. Powerful conceptual frameworks exist for anticipating consequences of novel disturbance regimes, but these remain challenging to apply in real-world settings. Nonlinear relationships (e.g., tipping points, feedbacks) are of particular concern because of their disproportionate effects. Future research should quantify the rise of novelty in disturbance regimes and assess the capacity of ecosystems to respond to these changes. Novel disturbance regimes will be potent catalysts for ecological change.
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Density-Dependent Selection
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 85–105More LessDensity-dependent selection, which promotes contrasting patterns of trait means at different population densities, has a long history in population genetics and ecology. The unifying principle from theory is that density-dependent selection operates on phenotypic traits whose values counter the effects of whatever ecological agent is limiting population growth, be it resource competition, predators, or pathogens. However, the complexity inherent in density dependence means that the same selective process can generate multiple outcomes, depending upon the details of how population density affects vital rates and the age or size structure of a population. Failure to appreciate the potential for multiple outcomes confounded many early studies of the process. Nonetheless, careful empirical work in laboratory studies, long-term field studies, and studies of sexual selection demonstrates the wide reach of density-dependent selection. The inconsistent outcomes observed in these studies call for renewed research into how the details of density dependence channel adaptive responses.
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The Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Chemical Defenses: From Molecules to Communities
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 107–127More LessClassic theory relates herbivore pressure to the ecology and evolution of plant defenses. Here, we summarize current trends in the study of plant–herbivore interactions and how they shape the evolution of plant chemical defenses, host choice, and community composition and diversity. Inter- and intraspecific variation in defense investment is driven by resource availability. The evolution of defenses at deeper nodes of plant phylogeny is conserved, yet defenses are highly labile at the tips. On an ecological timescale, while greater specialization of tropical herbivores enhances local diversity by reducing the performance of plants with similar defenses, in temperate ecosystems with more generalist herbivores, rare defense profiles are at a disadvantage. On an evolutionary timescale, host choice by herbivores is largely determined by plant defenses rather than host phylogeny, leading to evolutionary tracking by herbivores rather than cocladogenesis. The interplay between plants and herbivores shapes both the origin and maintenance of diversity.
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Smooth and Spiky: The Importance of Variability in Marine Climate Change Ecology
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 129–149More LessGreenhouse gas emissions are warming the ocean with profound consequences at all levels of organization, from organismal rates to ecosystem processes. The proximate driver is an interplay between anthropogenic warming (the trend) and natural fluctuations in local temperature. These two properties cause anomalously warm events such as marine heatwaves to occur with increasing frequency and magnitude. Because warming and variance are not uniform, there is a large degree of geographic variation in temporal temperature variability. We review the underappreciated interaction between trend and variance in the ocean and how it modulates ecological responses to ocean warming. For example, organisms in more thermally variable environments are often more acclimatized and/or adapted to temperature extremes and are thus less sensitive to anthropogenic heatwaves. Considering both trend and variability highlights the importance of processes like legacy effects and extinction debt that influence the rate of community transformation.
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Functional Trait Variation Along Animal Invasion Pathways
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 151–170More LessFunctional trait–based mediation of animal invasions is only now developing, yet it is already showing as much promise as the approach has for plant invasion biology. Here, we provide a theory-founded examination of functional trait–based ecology with respect to animal invasions, together with a review of the empirical research. Recent developments in the scaling of traits to ecosystems, along with the frameworks for invasion ecology, provide a powerful foundation for investigations. Despite growing empirical research in this field, interspecific comparisons incorporating comparative phylogenetic approaches remain uncommon, and those examining assemblages are even more so. Despite the importance of time since introduction, it is rarely included in studies. Broad environmental tolerances, life history traits associated with fast growth or greater reproduction, and in some cases, greater phenotypic plasticity of traits, mediate the success of animal alien species at various stages of invasion, although introduction effort remains one of the most important factors affecting success.
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Ecological and Evolutionary Insights About Emerging Infectious Diseases from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 171–193More LessThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic challenged the workings of human society, but in doing so, it advanced our understanding of the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. Fluctuating transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) demonstrated the highly dynamic nature of human social behavior, often without government intervention. Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in the first two years following spillover resulted primarily in increased transmissibility, while in the third year, the globally dominant virus variants had all evolved substantial immune evasion. The combination of viral evolution and the buildup of host immunity through vaccination and infection greatly decreased the realized virulence of SARS-CoV-2 due to the age dependence of disease severity. The COVID-19 pandemic was exacerbated by presymptomatic, asymptomatic, and highly heterogeneous transmission, as well as highly variable disease severity and the broad host range of SARS-CoV-2. Insights and tools developed during the COVID-19 pandemic could provide a stronger scientific basis for preventing, mitigating, and controlling future pandemics.
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Patterns of Non-Native Species Introduction, Spread, and Ecological Impact in South Florida, the World's Most Invaded Continental Ecoregion
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 195–218More LessInvasive species are a chief threat to native biodiversity and are only becoming more common with human globalization. This creates a need to understand the patterns in invasion biology, including where invasions are most likely to occur, which species are most likely to establish and spread, and what are likely to be the most influential ecological consequences. We examine these questions through the lens of South Florida, the continental region with the most invasive species across the globe. First, understanding why South Florida has so many invasives and how they are distributed across South Florida helps us to understand where we can expect similar levels of invasion to occur. Second, understanding which species are most likely to establish, spread, and have the greatest ecological impact informs which invasions we should be most concerned about. Finally, the history of control efforts and their relative success can help guide future management practices.
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Sky Islands Are a Global Tool for Predicting the Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Climate Change
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 219–236More LessSky islands are unique geologic formations, home to populations of organisms that have weathered climate change since the Pleistocene. Long-term isolation and climatic differences between sky islands and adjacent mountain chains result in natural laboratories well suited for examining the direct effects of climate change. Here, we review the global sky island literature to examine how taxa have responded to climate change. Results show lineage formation, reduced genetic variation, and trait evolution across taxa driven by genetic drift and natural selection. These effects continue today due to ongoing habitat reduction and steep selective gradients on sky islands relative to mountain chains. Comparative studies and experimental manipulations are needed to build broad inference into how past climate change has shaped the structure and function of whole ecosystems. The next era of sky island research is poised to create a model for climate change responses and eco-evolutionary dynamics, with profound conservation implications.
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Large Old World Fruit Bats on the Brink of Extinction: Causes and Consequences
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 237–257More LessLarge Old World fruit bats (LOWFBs), species of Pteropus, Acerodon, and related genera of large bats in the pteropodid subfamily Pteropodinae, play important roles as agents of dispersal and pollination across the Paleotropics. LOWFBs are also collectively the most threatened group of bats in the world, with 71% of extant species assessed as threatened by International Union for Conservation of Nature. As highlighted here, contrary to other bats, the vast majority of LOWFBs face multiple simultaneous threats. Most importantly, biological and ecological traits, in particular life history characteristics, diet, movement, social ecology, and physiology, intensify threats and accelerate species declines. Furthermore, we demonstrate that LOWFBs are to be considered keystone species and express concern about the erosion of this role and the cascading effects expected on native ecosystems. In response to this alarming situation, we advance general recommendations and identify overarching research and conservation actions.
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Looking Back for the Future: The Ecology of Terrestrial Communities Through the Lens of Conservation Paleobiology
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 259–282More LessTerrestrial ecosystems encompass a vast and vital component of Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effect of increased anthropogenic dominance on terrestrial communities defines major challenges for ecosystem conservation, including habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change, species invasions and extinctions, and disease spread. Here, we integrate fossil, historical, and present-day organismal and ecological data to investigate how conservation paleobiology provides deep-time perspectives on terrestrial organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems impacted by anthropogenic processes. We relate research tools to conservation outputs and highlight gaps that currently limit conservation paleobiology from reaching its full impact on conservation practice and management. In doing so, we also highlight how the colonial legacies of conservation biology and paleobiology confound our understanding of present-day biodiversity, ecosystem processes, and conservation outlooks, and we make recommendations for more inclusive and ethical practices moving forward.
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The Diverse Mechanisms that Animals Use to Resist Toxins
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 283–306More LessBiological toxins are entrenched within ecosystems. Thus, animals are often exposed to such toxins, and how they adapt can be a key determinant of their evolutionary trajectories. In this review, we provide an overview of the diversity of toxin resistance mechanisms, with a focus on animals that sequester toxins from their diet and their natural predators and parasites. We propose a structured framework in which to study toxin resistance by recategorizing and reorganizing known mechanisms into avoidance, metabolism, and target categories. Then, using this framework, we review evidence regarding how animals resist four widely studied compounds: tetrodotoxin, batrachotoxin, cardiotonic steroids, and pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Based on the available data, we conclude that toxin resistance and sequestration are interrelated from both ecological and evolutionary perspectives. To conclude, we highlight open questions regarding toxin resistance and review its importance as a field.
En los ecosistemas las toxinas de origen biológico son componentes intrínsecos. Por esta razón, los animales se ven expuestos frecuenciamente a dichas toxinas y la forma en que se adaptan puede ser un factor que determina su trayectoria evolutiva. Esta revisión ofrece una visión general de la diversidad de mecanismos de resistencia a toxinas, centrándose en animales que secuestran toxinas de su dieta y en sus depredadores y parásitos naturales. En este texto se propone un marco estructural para estudiar la resistencia a toxinas mediante la recategorización y reorganización de mecanismos conocidos en categorías de: evación, metabolismo y moléculas diana. A continuación, utilizando este marco, revisamos la literatura científica en busca de evidencia sobre cómo los animales resisten a cuatro compuestos ampliamente estudiados: tetrodotoxina, batracotoxina, esteroides cardiotónicos y alcaloides de pirrolizidina. A partir de los datos disponibles, llegamos a la conclusión de que la resistencia y la retención de toxinas están interrelacionadas tanto desde el punto de vista ecológico como evolutivo. Por último, destacamos algunas preguntas abiertas en torno a la resistencia a las toxinas y resaltamos su importancia como campo de estudio en el futuro.
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How Whales Dive, Feast, and Fast: The Ecophysiological Drivers and Limits of Foraging in the Evolution of Cetaceans
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 307–325More LessWhales are an extraordinary study group for questions about ecology and evolution because their combinations of extreme body sizes and unique foraging strategies are unparalleled among animals. From a terrestrial ancestry, whales evolved specialized oceanic foraging mechanisms that characterize the two main groups of living cetaceans: echolocation by toothed whales and bulk filter feeding by baleen whales. In toothed whales, lineage-specific increases in body size, enhanced diving capacity, and echolocation enable them to hunt the most abundant prey on the planet: deep-sea fish and cephalopods. Even greater body size increases, along with filter feeding and fasting capacity, permit large baleen whales to migrate long distances and exploit epipelagic patches of schooling prey, such as krill or fish, which are highly abundant but ephemeral. For both groups, prey abundance and distribution limit foraging performance, yielding divergent energetic niches that have shaped their convergent evolution to gigantism.
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Life as a Guide to Its Own Origins
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 327–350More LessThe origin of life entails a continuum from simple prebiotic chemistry to cells with genes and molecular machines. Using life as a guide to this continuum, we consider how selection could promote increased complexity before the emergence of genes. Structured, far-from-equilibrium environments such as hydrothermal systems drive the reaction between CO2 and H2 to form organics that self-organize into protocells. CO2 fixation within protocells generates a reaction network with a topology that prefigures the universal core of metabolism. Positive feedback loops amplify flux through this network, giving a metabolic heredity that promotes growth. Patterns in the genetic code show that genes and proteins arose through direct biophysical interactions between amino acids and nucleotides in this protometabolic network. Random genetic sequences template nonrandom peptides, producing selectable function in growing protocells. This context-dependent emergence of information gives rise seamlessly to an autotrophic last universal common ancestor.
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Background Acoustics in Terrestrial Ecology
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 351–373More LessThe way in which terrestrial organisms use the acoustic realm is fundamentally important and shapes behavior, populations, and communities, but how background acoustics, or noise, influence the patterns and processes in ecology is still relatively understudied. In this review, we summarize how background acoustics have traditionally been studied from the signaling perspective, discuss what is known from a receiver's perspective, and explore what is known about population- and community-level responses to noise. We suggest that there are major gaps linking animal physiology and behavior in noise to fitness; that there is a limited understanding of variation in hearing within and across species, especially in the context of real-world acoustic conditions; and that many puzzling responses to noise could be clarified with a community-level lens that considers indirect effects. Failing to consider variation in acoustic conditions, and the many ways organisms use and interact via this environmental dimension, risks a limited understanding of natural systems.
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The Deep Soil Organic Carbon Response to Global Change
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 375–401More LessOver 70% of soil organic carbon (SOC) is stored at a depth greater than 20 cm belowground. A portion of this deep SOC actively cycles on annual to decadal timescales and is sensitive to global change. However, deep SOC responses to global change likely differ from surface SOC responses because biotic controls on SOC cycling become weaker as mineral controls predominate with depth. Here, we synthesize the current information on deep SOC responses to the global change drivers of warming, shifting precipitation, elevated CO2, and land use and land cover change. Most deep SOC responses can only be hypothesized because few global change studies measure deep soils, and even fewer global change experiments manipulate deep soils. We call on scientists to incorporate deep soils into their manipulations, measurements, and models so that the response of deep SOC can be accounted for in projections of nature-based climate solutions and terrestrial feedbacks to climate change.
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The Causes and Consequences of Seed Dispersal
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 403–427More LessSeed dispersal, or the movement of diaspores away from the parent location, is a multiscale, multipartner process that depends on the interaction of plant life history with vector movement and the environment. Seed dispersal underpins many important plant ecological and evolutionary processes such as gene flow, population dynamics, range expansion, and diversity. We review exciting new directions that the field of seed dispersal ecology and evolution has taken over the past 40 years. We provide an overview of the ultimate causes of dispersal and the consequences of this important process for plant population and community dynamics. We also discuss several emergent unifying frameworks that are being used to study dispersal and describe how they can be integrated to provide a more mechanistic understanding of dispersal.
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Terrestrial Phosphorus Cycling: Responses to Climatic Change
Vol. 54 (2023), pp. 429–449More LessPhosphorus (P) limits productivity in many ecosystems and has the potential to constrain the global carbon sink. The magnitude of these effects depends on how climate change and rising CO2 affect P cycling. Some effects are well established. First, P limitation often constrains CO2 fertilization, and rising CO2 often exacerbates P limitation. Second, P limitation and P constraints to CO2 fertilization are more common in warmer and wetter sites. Models that couple P cycling to vegetation generally capture these outcomes. However, due largely to differences between short-term and long-term dynamics, the patterns observed across climatic gradients do not necessarily indicate how climate change over years to decades will modify P limitation. These annual-to-decadal effects are not well understood. Furthermore, even for the well-understood patterns, much remains to be learned about the quantitative details, mechanisms, and drivers of variability. The interface between empirical and modeling work is particularly ripe for development.
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Previous Volumes
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Volume 54 (2023)
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Volume 53 (2022)
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Volume 52 (2021)
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Volume 51 (2020)
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Volume 50 (2019)
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Volume 49 (2018)
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Volume 48 (2017)
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Volume 47 (2016)
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Volume 46 (2015)
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Volume 45 (2014)
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Volume 44 (2013)
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Volume 43 (2012)
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Volume 42 (2011)
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Volume 41 (2010)
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Volume 40 (2009)
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Volume 39 (2008)
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Volume 38 (2007)
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Volume 37 (2006)
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Volume 36 (2005)
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Volume 35 (2004)
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Volume 34 (2003)
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Volume 33 (2002)
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Volume 32 (2001)
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Volume 31 (2000)
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Volume 30 (1999)
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Volume 29 (1998)
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Volume 28 (1997)
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Volume 27 (1996)
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Volume 26 (1995)
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Volume 25 (1994)
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Volume 24 (1993)
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Volume 23 (1992)
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Volume 22 (1991)
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Volume 21 (1990)
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Volume 20 (1989)
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Volume 19 (1988)
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Volume 18 (1987)
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Volume 17 (1986)
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Volume 16 (1985)
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Volume 15 (1984)
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Volume 14 (1983)
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Volume 13 (1982)
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Volume 12 (1981)
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Volume 11 (1980)
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Volume 10 (1979)
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Volume 9 (1978)
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Volume 8 (1977)
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Volume 7 (1976)
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Volume 6 (1975)
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Volume 5 (1974)
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Volume 4 (1973)
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Volume 3 (1972)
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Volume 2 (1971)
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Volume 1 (1970)
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Volume 0 (1932)