Community ecology articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    Global reef fish diversity is studied with metrics incorporating species abundances and functional traits; these identify diversity hotspots corresponding to the diversity of functional traits amongst individuals in the community, and greater evenness in the abundance of reef fishes at higher latitudes, findings that contrast with patterns reported previously using traditional richness-based methods.

    • Rick D. Stuart-Smith
    • , Amanda E. Bates
    •  & Graham J. Edgar

  • Letter |

    A combination of extensive field surveys and realistic experiments involving an amphibian disease system reveals that biodiversity reduces pathogen transmission due to a predictable link between species richness and the ability of communities to support infection.

    • Pieter T. J. Johnson
    • , Daniel L. Preston
    •  & Katherine L. D. Richgels

  • Letter |

    Volatile scents of moss Ceratodon purpureus show sex-specific differences and are similar in chemical diversity to those of plant–insect pollination mutualisms; and moss-dwelling microarthropods, whose presence increases C. purpureus fertilization rates, prefer scents of reproductive female C. purpureus to reproductive males, indicating a scent-based ‘plant–pollinator-like’ relationship between mosses and microarthropods.

    • Todd N. Rosenstiel
    • , Erin E. Shortlidge
    •  & Sarah M. Eppley

  • Letter |

    Examination of previous results and computational analysis of empirical data sets representing mutualistic plant–pollinator networks shows that a simple metric—the number of mutualistic partners a species has—is a better predictor of individual species survival (and hence, community persistence) than is the nestedness of ecological networks.

    • Alex James
    • , Jonathan W. Pitchford
    •  & Michael J. Plank

  • Article |

    Consumption rates vary substantially between consumers searching in three dimensions (for example, arboreal and pelagic zones), with consumption rates scaling superlinearly with consumer body mass, and those searching in two dimensions (for example, terrestrial and benthic zones), with consumption rates scaling sublinearly with consumer body mass.

    • Samraat Pawar
    • , Anthony I. Dell
    •  & Van M. Savage

  • News & Views |

    The venom of the Texas coral snake causes excruciating pain. The discovery of the venom's pain-inducing component opens up opportunities for studying predator–prey interactions and for pain research. See Letter p.410

    • Baldomero M. Olivera
    •  & Russell W. Teichert

  • News & Views |

    Mutualism can be a double-edged sword if the animals concerned also compete for food. This may explain the discovery that catfish mimics in the Amazon rarely engage in mimicry with related species. See Letter p.84

    • James Mallet
    •  & Kanchon Dasmahapatra

  • Letter |

    Müllerian mimics have convergently evolved similar warning colouration because of the advantage of strength in numbers. However, it is not clear if this effect is sufficient to maintain coexistence when competitive exclusion would be expected to favour one mimic at the expense of the others. Here, Müllerian mimicry in catfish is characterized, and it is shown through morphometric and stable isotope analysis that mimics do not occupy identical niches, so are not in direct competition, thus explaining their coexistence.

    • Markos A. Alexandrou
    • , Claudio Oliveira
    •  & Martin I. Taylor

  • Letter |

    The effects of biodiversity on ecosystem function are usually studied within trophic levels. These authors conduct a large experiment across trophic levels to show how manipulations of plant diversity affect function in different groups. The effects are consistent across groups, but are stronger at adjacent trophic levels and in above-ground rather than below-ground groups.

    • Christoph Scherber
    • , Nico Eisenhauer
    •  & Teja Tscharntke

  • News & Views |

    Delimitation of species is especially taxing when populations of similar organisms occupy non-overlapping geographical ranges. A new quantitative framework offers a consistent approach for tackling the problem.

    • Thomas M. Brooks
    •  & Kristofer M. Helgen

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