Articles in 2022

Using in vitro model communities and in vivo cystic fibrosis sputum samples, the authors show that interspecific competition undergoing in certain microbial communities can constrain the fixation of loss-of-function mutations in Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing, limiting the fixation of mutators.

A dataset of 16 plant traits sampled from 2,461 individual trees from 74 tropical forest sites around the world is used to show a strong link between climate and plant functional diversity and redundancy, with drier tropical forests likely being less able to respond to declines in water availability.

Genetic, ecological and simulation data demonstrate that the origin and coexistence of reproductively isolated sympatric groups in a fungus is driven by pleiotropic vegetative incompatibility genes under balancing selection.

The authors link fungal diversity to the stability of terrestrial ecosystem productivity across three global datasets, finding that richness of decomposers and mycorrhizae are positively associated with stability while the richness of plant pathogens is negatively related to stability.

Introgression is an important source of genetic variation. Analysing genomes of two sympatric widespread Asian oak species, the authors find introgression across the genome and signatures of adaptive introgression in regions with suppressed recombination rate.

The authors examine present and past drivers of ungulate migratory behaviour, finding that current migratory ungulates are larger, more grass-dependent and live at higher latitudes on average than non-migrants, and that migration probably emerged after the rise of C₄ grasslands and increased seasonality towards the poles.

Seagrass meadows are important carbon sinks. Here, the authors show that organic carbon in the form of simple sugars can accumulate at high concentrations in seagrass rhizospheres because plant phenolic compounds inhibit their consumption by microorganisms.

After compiling literature data on mammal parasites across urban and non-urban areas, the authors show that mammals in urban areas have more parasites overall without disproportionately more zoonotic ones, as is commonly thought.

After developing a method to infer network complexity without knowledge of underlying species interactions, the authors show that, in several types of microbial communities, an ecosystem’s stability constrains its complexity.

A study in eastern Canada finds that forest-management strategies that lead to simplified forest structure and composition have resulted in loss of breeding habitat and associated population losses for many bird species.

The role of compensatory mutations in phenotypic evolution is unclear. Here the authors use experimental evolution to show that gene loss followed by compensatory evolution contributes to the rapid emergence of new cellular and multicellular morphologies in the budding yeast.

Analysis of 48 newly generated genomes, including 32 mangrove species, sheds light on patterns of speciation and extinction of these woody, coastal plants.

Analysis of diet and body size in terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates shows that a U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild prevails across extant vertebrates with the exception of marine mammals and seabirds. Analysis of fossil data shows that, for terrestrial mammals, this pattern has persisted for at least 66 million years, despite anthropogenic perturbance, which may have greater effects in the next centuries.

Excavation in Island New Guinea reveals features associated with the Pacific Lapita cultural complex as well as sustained local cultural traditions from 3,480–3,060 years ago, contemporary with the earliest known Lapita settlements 700 km away. This supports New Guinea as a springboard for Lapita dispersal throughout the Pacific and illuminates their origins.

Modelling shows that vaccines that reduce infection or hasten infection clearance generate positive epistasis between vaccine-escape and virulence alleles, whereas vaccines that reduce virulence generate negative epistasis. High rates of recombination also affect how selection acts on both alleles.

Using data from blue tits, the authors show that the distribution of juvenile body size is skewed due to environmental factors, and that although it does not affect selection estimates in this case, skew has the potential to overestimate heritability and explain discrepancies in predicted trait evolution.

Surveying sponge biodiversity across the Caribbean, the authors show that low microbial abundance is the ancestral symbiotic state, whereas high microbial abundance has evolved multiple times and exhibits increased endemism, metabolic dependence and chemical defences.

Exploring more than 17,000 privately protected areas in 15 countries across 5 continents, the authors identify the contribution of this kind of protected area to global conservation efforts and identify the roles they can play to achieving new biodiversity conservation targets.

Milk proteins from the North Caucasus and Eurasian steppe support the initial development of sheep dairying during the Eneolithic, followed by subsequent intensification and husbandry of different dairy animals during the Middle Bronze Age and later periods.

Integrating bioenergetic models and global coral reef fish community surveys, the authors show that there are functional trade-offs, meaning that no community can maximize all functions, and that dominant species underpin local functions, but their identity varies geographically.