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Genome analysis of the pico-eukaryotic marine green alga Prasinoderma coloniale CCMP 1413 unveils the existence of a novel phylum within green plants (Viridiplantae), the Prasinodermophyta, which diverged before the split of Chlorophyta and Streptophyta.
Population genomic data from a global dataset of three-spined sticklebacks show that parallel signatures of marine to freshwater differentiation are less common than previously thought.
Genome sequencing of multiple independent invading freshwater and native saline populations of a copepod reveals a positive association between balancing selection in the native range and parallel directional selection in the invading populations.
Developing theory to explore the effects of environmental change on the structure of species interactions within communities, the authors show that enhancing asymmetry in the structure can explain idiosyncratic responses to change. They further confirm these findings on experimental data from microbial species grown together compared with in isolation, subject to different temperature regimes.
An analysis of geometric morphometric data from 148 species of salamanders shows how life cycle influences cranial shape diversity and rate of evolution.
A study of global tree ring data records over the last century reveals a temporal trade-off between resistance and resilience to drought for gymnosperms.
A cross-scale analysis of paired-stressor effects on biological variables of European freshwater ecosystems shows that in 39% of cases, significant effects were limited to single stressors, with nutrient enrichment being the most important of these in lakes. Additive and interactive effects were similarly frequent (ca. 30% each), this frequency being independent of the spatial scale of analysis for lakes but increasing with scale for rivers.
Using comparative population genomics across pinnipeds, this study explores how demographic change and life-history traits are correlated to the effective size of a population and conservation status.
Rising temperatures and predator avoidance constrain herbivore activity on the southern African savannas, forcing them into ever-tightening windows of activity, in a ‘timescape of fear’.
A mathematical model of sexual conflict shows that kin discrimination and group dispersal inhibit harmful male behaviours at an individual level but kin discrimination intensifies sexual conflict at the population level.
Compiling a global geo-database of >30,000 range shifts, the authors show that marine species closely track shifting isotherms, whereas terrestrial species lag behind, probably due to wider thermal safety margins and movement constraints imposed by human activities.
By assembling the genomes of 22 Fraxinus species and conducting comparisons including further species, the authors identify candidate loci for emerald ash borer resistance that have evolved convergently.
Analysing a global dataset of almost 7,000 dietary records from >4,400 species of butterflies and moths, the author shows that latitudinal variation in diet breadth can be better explained by the relative position of a population within its geographic range, than by latitude per se.
Analysis of metacarpal trabecular and cortical bone reveals hand use diversity, including power and precision grips, among early hominins, and shows that Australopithecus sediba combined great ape-like arboreal grasping power with human-like manipulation ability.
Non-saturating relationships of biodiversity with biomass and productivity are shown in remote assemblages of coral reef fishes. These positive relationships were robust to both an extreme heatwave and invasive rats.
Comparative analysis of genome-wide transcription in three closely related species of horned beetles with diverse degrees of nutrition responsiveness in the development of male weaponry reveals mechanisms of nutrition-responsive growth and their evolution.
The accumulation of somatic genetic variation in clonal species leads to heterogeneity among autonomous modules (ramets). Ultra-deep resequencing of single ramets in a clonal seagrass shows somatic genetic drift resulting in genetically differentiated ramets that are targets of selection.
A new radiocarbon chronology for the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition at the Bulgarian site of Bacho Kiro reveals Homo sapiens-associated sediments as early as 46,940 yr bp.
Twin births are not frequent in human populations despite twin-bearing mothers having elevated fitness. Here, the authors show that dizygotic twinning is the outcome of an adaptive conditional ovulatory strategy of switching from single to double ovulation with increasing age.
A mathematical model that integrates biological and clinical data shows that the ecology of the stroma is an important determinant of tumour evolution in prostate cancer.