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The authors infer that pelvic skeleton reduction in a fossil sequence of the Miocene stickleback fish, Gasterosteus doryssus, proceeds through the same gene of large effect and a similar suite of genes of small effect as in a closely related extant species, Gasterosteusaculeatus.
This study reports the depletion of young Neandertal and Denisovan introgressed SNPs from gene regulatory enhancers in modern human genomes, as well as an association of enhancer pleiotropy with both the magnitude of archaic SNP depletion and the degree of intolerance to new mutations.
By comparing data from real-world grassland communities with data from two of the longest-running grassland biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments, the authors show that conclusions derived from experimental systems are robust to the removal of unrealistic experimental communities.
The utility of the threshold paradigm, such that relatively small perturbations drive abrupt ecosystem changes, is challenged by a synthesis of 36 meta-analyses, which detected few signatures of thresholds from over 4,600 global change impacts on natural ecological communities.
Analysing global high-resolution three-dimensional maps of forest structure, the authors show that only half of the world’s remaining moist tropical forest has both high structural integrity and low human pressure, and they outline a framework for its conservation and restoration.
By exposing an experimental 34-species bacterial community to different levels of pulse antibiotic disturbance with or without immigration, the authors identify a highly repeatable community response, the magnitude of which increases with increasing antibiotic levels.
An automation-enabled evolution experiment in which genes from across the tree of life are introduced into Escherichia coli shows that mutations that upregulate the introduced gene can mitigate fitness defects without the need for coding changes.
Multiproxy archaeobotanical analyses of an abandoned agricultural terrace at Wagadagam document extensive, low-intensity forms of plant management from at least 2,145–1,930 cal yr bp and intensive forms of cultivation at 1,376–1,293 cal yr bp.
Analysing >5,000 population abundance time series for insects and other arthropods from 68 sites within the US Long Term Ecological Research network, the authors find high variation but no overall trend in abundance and diversity among sites and taxa.
Comparing historical records with contemporary camera trap surveys, the authors report widespread declines in the occurrence of four large carnivore species from protected areas within the distributional range of the giant panda.
Males of the malaria vector species Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles gambiae produce and release aggregation pheromones that attract individuals to the swarm, enhancing mating success. The authors argue that manipulating such pheromones could increase the efficacy of malaria-vector control programmes.
Combining global eddy covariance observations and photosynthesis estimates from terrestrial biosphere models, the authors demonstrate widespread acclimation of photosynthesis to light in natural environments, with croplands showing stronger acclimation rates than forests or grasslands.
Diversification trajectories of skeletal non-colonial marine families show increased capacity of marine ecosystems to accommodate highly diverse communities over the Phanerozoic.
The evolutionary origin of insect wings is unclear. Gene expression and functional analyses show a gene network operating in the terga and proximal leg segments of the crustacean evo-devo model Parhyale hawaiensis, similar to the insect wing gene network.
Analysing archaic and modern human genomes, the authors show that Neanderthal introgression reintroduced thousands of lost ancestral variants with gene regulatory activity and that these reintroduced alleles are more tolerated by modern humans than introgressed Neanderthal-derived alleles.
Screening >100 bee and >80 flower species for five common microparasites over 26 weeks, the authors show that parasite prevalence increases in bees toward the end of the growing season, but decreases on plants, and is related to bee diversity, abundance and community composition.
Comparing Mexican cavefish from rivers with those from caves, the authors show increased sensitivity of the innate and adaptive immune system that is accompanied by a reduced investment in the innate immune system as an evolutionary response to lower parasite diversity.
The costs of echolocation during flight were thought to be negligible for bats, but here it is shown that this is true only below a certain intensity threshold. Above 130 dB, the costs of sound production become too expensive for small bats.