Article |
Featured
-
-
Article |
Cumulative human impacts on marine predators
Human activities affect marine predators in complex ways, yet we lack spatial understanding of cumulative impacts across key habitats. Here the authors analyse distribution and movements of eight marine predators, and find that species and human impacts vary across space and overlap within marine sanctuaries.
- Sara M. Maxwell
- , Elliott L. Hazen
- & Daniel P. Costa
-
Article |
Deoxygenation alters bacterial diversity and community composition in the ocean’s largest oxygen minimum zone
Oxygen minimum zones in the global ocean have an important role in biogeochemical cycles, yet their response to climate change is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that bacterial community composition is tightly coupled to dissolved oxygen and is likely to fundamentally change as the oceans warm.
- J. Michael Beman
- & Molly T. Carolan
-
Article
| Open AccessNatural gold particles in Eucalyptus leaves and their relevance to exploration for buried gold deposits
The discovery of new gold deposits has declined by 45% over the past 10 years. Lintern et al.present new evidence for the occurrence of particulate gold in trees growing above buried mineral deposits, and propose vegetation sampling as a mineral exploration method.
- Melvyn Lintern
- , Ravi Anand
- & David Paterson
-
Article |
Earthworms facilitate carbon sequestration through unequal amplification of carbon stabilization compared with mineralization
The presence of earthworms in soil may significantly increase CO2 emissions, but the impacts of earthworms on net carbon sequestration are poorly understood. Zhang et al. introduce a new concept by which the effects of earthworms on the balance of carbon mineralization and stabilization can be quantified.
- Weixin Zhang
- , Paul F. Hendrix
- & Shenglei Fu
-
Article |
Evolutionary history predicts the stability of cooperation in microbial communities
Persistence of cooperation requires limited spread of defectors, but it is unclear how evolutionary history affects the spread of these individuals. Here, Jousset et al.show that microbial cooperators can only inhibit defectors that are closely related to them, suggesting that evolutionary history can predict the stability of cooperation.
- Alexandre Jousset
- , Nico Eisenhauer
- & Stefan Scheu
-
Article |
Photochemical reflectance index as an indirect estimator of foliar isoprenoid emissions at the ecosystem level
Isoprene and monoterpenes, emitted by terrestrial plants, have an important role in both plant biology and environment, but they are poorly quantified at the ecosystem level. Peñuelas et al.show that the photochemical reflectance index can be used to indirectly estimate foliar isoprenoid emissions remotely.
- Josep Peñuelas
- , Giovanni Marino
- & Iolanda Filella
-
Article |
Network modularity reveals critical scales for connectivity in ecology and evolution
Spatial scale is important for ecological and evolutionary processes, yet objectively identifying critical scales has been challenging. Here, the authors illustrate how network modularity can identify critical scales in animal movement and significantly alter our understanding of ecological processes.
- Robert J. Fletcher Jr
- , Andre Revell
- & James D. Austin
-
Article |
Advancing plant phenology and reduced herbivore production in a terrestrial system associated with sea ice decline
The effect of lower Arctic sea ice levels on local terrestrial ecosystems is not well studied. Here Kerby and Post find that decreasing Arctic sea ice levels are associated with the early emergence of plant growth, which decouples plant growth from the birth of Caribou calves, and may be associated with increased calf mortality.
- Jeffrey T. Kerby
- & Eric Post
-
Article |
Oxygen consumption rates in subseafloor basaltic crust derived from a reaction transport model
Deep oceanic crust could host a wealth of microbial life, but biogeochemical reactions therein are poorly understood. Orcutt et al.combine measurements of sedimentary oxygen and pore water chemistry from basement crust with a reactive transport box model to shed light on oxygen consumption in basaltic crust.
- Beth N. Orcutt
- , C. Geoffrey Wheat
- & Wolfgang Bach
-
Article |
Human impacts drive a global topographic signature in tree cover
Humans have greatly altered the distribution of forests across the world. Here, the authors use estimates of tree cover from remote-sensing data to reveal that human impact has produced a strong tendency for forest remnants to persist primarily on sloped terrain.
- Brody Sandel
- & Jens-Christian Svenning
-
Article
| Open AccessRepeated targeting of the same hosts by a brood parasite compromises host egg rejection
Cuckoo eggs mimic those of their hosts to evade rejection. Here, the authors demonstrate that African cuckoo finch females combine both mimicry and a strategy of repeatedly parasitizing the same host nests to increase success by creating uncertainty in host defenses.
- Martin Stevens
- , Jolyon Troscianko
- & Claire N. Spottiswoode
-
Article
| Open AccessIncreasing functional modularity with residence time in the co-distribution of native and introduced vascular plants
Understanding how species assemblages change over time is crucial for conservation. Here, the authors assess the changes of compartmentalized structure in native and alien species across millennia, and show that older assemblages can form more functionally distinctive modules than younger ones.
- Cang Hui
- , David M. Richardson
- & Vojtěch Jarošík
-
Article
| Open AccessOsmium isotope evidence for a large Late Triassic impact event
Before the mass extinction that characterized the Late Triassic period, there were a series of biotic turnover events, the cause of which are the subject of debate. Sato et al. present geochemical evidence in support of the theory that extraterrestrial impacts had an important role in these events.
- Honami Sato
- , Tetsuji Onoue
- & Katsuhiko Suzuki
-
Article |
Siberian larch forests and the ion content of thaw lakes form a geochemically functional entity
Hitherto, Siberian vegetation was not considered to cause the south-to-north ion content gradient of thaw lakes. Herzschuh et al.propose that higher evapotranspiration in larch forests compared with that in the tundra leads to local salt accumulation in permafrost soils, which are transported as solutes to nearby lakes.
- Ulrike Herzschuh
- , Luidmila A. Pestryakova
- & H. John B. Birks
-
Article |
Marine protected area improves yield without disadvantaging fishers
Potential fishery benefits of Marine Protected Areas are widely acknowledged, yet their impact on fishery dynamics remains poorly understood. Here the authors provide evidence that Marine Protected Areas can rapidly increase catch rates in adjacent areas, without measurable disadvantages for fishers.
- Sven E. Kerwath
- , Henning Winker
- & Colin G. Attwood
-
Article |
Estimating the tolerance of species to the effects of global environmental change
Global environmental change is affecting the strength of interspecific interactions. The authors here estimate how much change species can tolerate before becoming extinct, and they find that species tolerance is very sensitive to the net direction of change.
- Serguei Saavedra
- , Rudolf P. Rohr
- & Jordi Bascompte
-
Article |
Forecasting flowering phenology under climate warming by modelling the regulatory dynamics of flowering-time genes
Climate change and increasing temperature have an impact on the flowering time of plants but models predicting these effects are lacking. Satake et al. provide a model based on differential gene expression to predict the response of plants to warmer temperatures and find that the flowering period is shortened.
- Akiko Satake
- , Tetsuhiro Kawagoe
- & Hiroshi Kudoh
-
Article |
Fine-scale niche structure of Neotropical forests reflects a legacy of the Great American Biotic Interchange
Niche conservatism may link community assembly to biogeographic history. Seido et al.find that the geographic origins of locally co-occurring trees explain 50% of the variation in species’ hydraulic niches, linking local community structure to species distributions millions of years before dispersal.
- Brian E. Sedio
- , John R. Paul
- & Christopher W. Dick
-
Article |
Population structure determines functional differences among species and ecosystem processes
Linking biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has been a longstanding challenge in ecology. Here, the authors demonstrate that changes in the demographic structure of populations can fundamentally alter the functional composition of natural communities and alter ecosystem processes long before any species are extirpated.
- Volker H. W. Rudolf
- & Nick L. Rasmussen
-
Article
| Open AccessEvolutionary instability of zero-determinant strategies demonstrates that winning is not everything
In iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma games, zero-determinant strategies are able to define the opponent’s payoff regardless of the opponent’s strategy. Here the authors show that zero-determinant strategies are not evolutionary stable in adapting populations, and instead evolve into non-coercive strategies.
- Christoph Adami
- & Arend Hintze
-
Article |
Turbulence drives microscale patches of motile phytoplankton
Patchiness in the distribution of phytoplankton promotes many of the ecological interactions that underpin the marine food web. This study shows that turbulence, ubiquitous in the ocean, counter-intuitively ‘unmixes’ a population of motile phytoplankton, generating intense, small-scale patchiness in its distribution.
- William M. Durham
- , Eric Climent
- & Roman Stocker
-
Article |
Temporal niche promotes biodiversity during adaptive radiation
Environmental fluctuation is known to promote biodiversity on ecological timescales, but its consequences for the evolution of biodiversity are unknown. Here, the authors report that alternations in environmental conditions help maintain evolved biodiversity in rapidly diversifying bacterial populations.
- Jiaqi Tan
- , Colleen K. Kelly
- & Lin Jiang
-
Article |
Asymmetric selection and the evolution of extraordinary defences
Excessive and costly defensive traits sometimes evolve contrary to what is expected based on the individual fitness. Here the authors provide evidence that asymmetrical natural selection explains the evolution of excessive investments in defence against enemies, including autoimmune responses.
- Mark C. Urban
- , Reinhard Bürger
- & Daniel I. Bolnick
-
Article |
Sex ratio biases in termites provide evidence for kin selection
Kin selection predicts female-biased sex ratios in haplodiploid eusocial insects because sisters are more related to each other than to their brothers. Here the authors provide evidence that sex ratio bias also occurs in diploid eusocial insects, which do not show asymmetric relatedness.
- Kazuya Kobayashi
- , Eisuke Hasegawa
- & Kenji Matsuura
-
Article
| Open AccessCarbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs
Deep subsurface formations are potential sites for carbon capture and storage but how subsurface microbial communities may respond to this is not clear. Here, Mayumi et al. construct microcosms and show that increasing CO2partial pressure via carbon capture and storage more than doubles the rate of methanogenesis.
- Daisuke Mayumi
- , Jan Dolfing
- & Yoichi Kamagata
-
Article |
Role of biogenic silica in the removal of iron from the Antarctic seas
Iron plays a key role in controlling biological production in the Southern Ocean, yet mechanisms regulating iron availability are not completely understood. Here, Ingall et al.show that structural incorporation of reduced, organic iron into biogenic silica represents a new and substantial removal pathway.
- Ellery D. Ingall
- , Julia M. Diaz
- & Jay A. Brandes
-
Article
| Open AccessHuman deforestation outweighs future climate change impacts of sedimentation on coral reefs
Forest cover up-river influences the sediments reaching coral reefs, but how this relationship is affected by future climate change is not clear. In a study of the Malagasy coral reefs, Maina et al.find that regional land-use management is more important than mediating climate change for reducing reef sedimentation.
- Joseph Maina
- , Hans de Moel
- & Jan E. Vermaat
-
Article |
A new Late Triasssic phytogeographical scenario in westernmost Gondwana
In the Late Triassic, southern Gondwanan flora is thought to have been dominated by endemic species mainly restricted to eastern areas with some mixing with northern species. In this study, pollen and spore assemblages from Argentina reveal the presence of these mixed flora in the westernmost Gondwana as well.
- Silvia N Césari
- & Carina E Colombi
-
Article |
Whole-community DNA barcoding reveals a spatio-temporal continuum of biodiversity at species and genetic levels
A correlation between species and genetic diversity has been suggested. Here Baselga et al.provide evidence of a concordant decrease in beetle community similarity at species and genetic levels with geographic distance, suggesting a macroecological pattern which may follow neutral evolutionary processes.
- Andrés Baselga
- , Tomochika Fujisawa
- & Alfried P. Vogler
-
Article |
Crocodylian diversity peak and extinction in the late Cenozoic of the northern Neotropics
Modern crocodylian diversity is in decline and sympatry is rare, with usually no more than two or three species occurring in the same geographic area. Here Scheyer et al. identify a diversity peak in sympatric occurrence of at least seven new and previously characterized crocodylian species during the Miocene in South America.
- T. M. Scheyer
- , O. A. Aguilera
- & M. R. Sánchez-Villagra
-
Article |
The oldest North American pachycephalosaurid and the hidden diversity of small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs
Fossils of small dinosaurs are less common than their large-bodied counterparts, but whether this relates to preservational biases remains unclear. Evans et al.describe a new pachycephalosaur and provide the first evidence that small-bodied dinosaur diversity is strongly underestimated.
- David C. Evans
- , Ryan K. Schott
- & Michael J. Ryan
-
Article |
Genomic islands of divergence are not affected by geography of speciation in sunflowers
Differentiated genomic regions among conserved loci, known as speciation islands, are believed to form because of reduced inter-population gene flow near loci under divergent selection. Renault et al.show that reduced recombination, rather than slower gene flow, accounts for the formation of these regions in sunflowers.
- S. Renaut
- , C. J. Grassa
- & L. H. Rieseberg
-
Article |
Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations
The role of bacteria in the origin of iron formations (IF) remains unclear because no direct evidence for their involvement exists. This study shows that spherical siderite in deep-water IF represents a biosignature for photoferrotrophy, whereas massive siderite reflects high cyanobacterial biomass in shallow-water.
- Inga Köhler
- , Kurt O Konhauser
- & Andreas Kappler
-
Article |
Identifying sources of tick blood meals using unidentified tandem mass spectral libraries
The identification of hosts of blood-sucking insects is important for studying ecological factors that affect pathogen distribution. Önder et al. report a proteomics-based methodology for the analysis of blood remnants in ticks that identifies the host species from which the tick has fed up to 6 months earlier.
- Özlem Önder
- , Wenguang Shao
- & Dustin Brisson
-
Article |
Fish parasites resolve the paradox of missing coextinctions
The number of different host species that a parasite uses should affect its extinction risk, yet the number of documented host–parasite coextinctions is lower than expected. Strona et al. find that specialised parasites tend to use hosts with low vulnerability to extinction, which explains the paradox.
- Giovanni Strona
- , Paolo Galli
- & Simone Fattorini
-
Article |
Ancient DNA reveals that bowhead whale lineages survived Late Pleistocene climate change and habitat shifts
The response of marine species to the Pleistocene climate change is largely unknown. Foote et al. find that the bowhead whale tracked shifting habitat at the end of the Pleistocene and increased in effective population size as suitable habitat and population connectivity increased.
- Andrew D. Foote
- , Kristin Kaschner
- & M Thomas P. Gilbert
-
Article |
Reconciliation of marine and terrestrial carbon isotope excursions based on changing atmospheric CO2 levels
Carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) measured in marine and terrestrial substrates indicate large-scale changes in the global carbon cycle. Schubert and Jahren show that larger-amplitude CIEs measured in terrestrial substrates reflect increased carbon isotope fractionation by land plants under elevated atmospheric CO2.
- Brian A. Schubert
- & A. Hope Jahren
-
Article
| Open AccessObservations from old forests underestimate climate change effects on tree mortality
It is thought that only climate change drives temporal tree mortality increases in old forests. Here, Luo and Chen show that both forest dynamics and climate change drive temporal tree mortality increases in young and old forests, and that climate change-associated mortality increases are higher in the young forests.
- Yong Luo
- & Han Y. H. Chen
-
Article |
Environmental variability promotes plant invasion
Environmental conditions are likely to become more temporally variable with global environmental change. Parepa et al. show that temporal variability on soil nutrient availability strongly promotes plant invasion and consequently can be a strong driver of ecological changes.
- Madalin Parepa
- , Markus Fischer
- & Oliver Bossdorf
-
Article |
Adaptive sex allocation in anticipation of changes in offspring mating opportunities
For parents, sons are more evolutionarily lucrative than daughters if sons get more chances to breed (and vice versa). Kahn et al. find that mosquitofish take advantage of this: they anticipate the future mating prospects of their offspring and bias production towards the sex with greater opportunities.
- Andrew T. Kahn
- , Hanna Kokko
- & Michael D. Jennions
-
Article |
A novel metatranscriptomic approach to identify gene expression dynamics during extracellular electron transfer
Extracellular electron transfer is a ubiquitous process that occurs in natural microbial communities. Here, Ishii et al.identify specific microbial strains and genes involved in extracellular electron transfer in a biofilm community that is associated with a microbial fuel cell.
- Shun’ichi Ishii
- , Shino Suzuki
- & Orianna Bretschger
-
Article |
The evolution of sex roles in birds is related to adult sex ratio
Biologists have struggled to explain the existence of sex-role reversal since Darwin first formulated his theory of evolution. Liker et al.show for the first time that sex roles are predicted by adult sex ratio in wild populations of birds: sex-role reversal emerges at male-biased adult sex ratios.
- András Liker
- , Robert P. Freckleton
- & Tamás Székely
-
Article
| Open AccessMid-Pliocene warm-period deposits in the High Arctic yield insight into camel evolution
Camels originated in North America during the Eocene period ~45 million years ago. This study reports evidence of a High Arctic camel from Ellesmere Island, which extends the range of North American camels northward by ~1,200 km to a lineage of giant camels that were well established in a forested Arctic.
- Natalia Rybczynski
- , John C. Gosse
- & Mike Buckley
-
Article |
Nitrogen cycle feedbacks as a control on euxinia in the mid-Proterozoic ocean
Clear evidence between sulphidic conditions and denitrification in the Proterozoic ocean should be observable in the rock record. Here, minimalistic biogeochemical modelling shows how periods of extensive sulphate reduction must have gone hand-in-hand with low denitrification and available nitrate.
- R.A. Boyle
- , J.R. Clark
- & T.M. Lenton
-
Article |
Decoupling the spread of grasslands from the evolution of grazer-type herbivores in South America
It has been thought that the evolution of mammals similar to modern grass-eating horses in South America ∼38 million years ago was a response to the spread of grasslands. This study uses microscopic plant silica fossils from southern Argentina to show that these presumed grass-eating mammals evolved in forests, not grasslands.
- Caroline A.E. Strömberg
- , Regan E. Dunn
- & Alfredo A. Carlini
-
Article |
Turnover of soil bacterial diversity driven by wide-scale environmental heterogeneity
In microbial biogeography, little is known about processes involved in soil bacterial diversity turnover. By conducting a wide-scale investigation, this study shows that dispersal limitation and environmental selection of bacteria are not mutually exclusive, highlighting the importance of landscape diversity.
- L. Ranjard
- , S. Dequiedt
- & P. Lemanceau
-
Article
| Open AccessMethylotrophic methanogenic Thermoplasmata implicated in reduced methane emissions from bovine rumen
Rumen methanogenic archaea are major sources of methane emissions and potential targets for methane mitigation strategies. Poulsen et al.now show that dietary rapeseed oil (RSO) supplementation can reduce the abundance of methanogenic Thermoplasmata archaea inhabiting the bovine rumen.
- Morten Poulsen
- , Clarissa Schwab
- & Tim Urich
-
Article
| Open AccessCaribbean-wide decline in carbonate production threatens coral reef growth
Coral reef health is declining globally and is projected to lead to net loss of reef structure. This study shows that ecological change across the Caribbean has reduced reef growth rates to levels lower than those measured over the last ~8,000 years, threatening the ability of reefs to keep pace with future sea-level rise.
- Chris T. Perry
- , Gary N. Murphy
- & Peter J. Mumby
-
Article |
Climate change patterns in Amazonia and biodiversity
The long-term hydroclimate variability in Amazonia and its influence on biodiversity remain poorly understood. Here, new speleothem oxygen isotope records characterize spatial–temporal changes in precipitation and provide new insights to understanding the west–east contrasting pattern of biodiversity in Amazonia.
- Hai Cheng
- , Ashish Sinha
- & Augusto S. Auler
Browse broader subjects
Browse narrower subjects
- Agroecology
- Animal migration
- Behavioural ecology
- Biodiversity
- Biogeochemistry
- Biogeography
- Biooceanography
- Boreal ecology
- Climate-change ecology
- Community ecology
- Conservation biology
- Ecological epidemiology
- Ecological genetics
- Ecological modelling
- Ecological networks
- Ecophysiology
- Ecosystem ecology
- Ecosystem services
- Environmental economics
- Evolutionary ecology
- Fire ecology
- Forest ecology
- Forestry
- Freshwater ecology
- Grassland ecology
- Invasive species
- Macroecology
- Microbial ecology
- Molecular ecology
- Palaeoecology
- Population dynamics
- Restoration ecology
- Riparian ecology
- Stable isotope analysis
- Theoretical ecology
- Tropical ecology
- Urban ecology
- Wetlands ecology