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Open Access
Featured
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Correspondence |
Biodiversity: an atlas of European reference genomes
- Camila J. Mazzoni
- , Claudio Ciofi
- & Robert M. Waterhouse
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Matters Arising |
The importance of trait selection in ecology
- Alexandra Weigelt
- , Liesje Mommer
- & M. Luke McCormack
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: The importance of trait selection in ecology
- C. Guillermo Bueno
- , Aurele Toussaint
- & Carlos P. Carmona
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Where I Work |
Helping to protect elephants — using software
Jes Lefcourt aims to guard African wildlife by creating a real-time tracking software.
- Hannah Docter-Loeb
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News Explainer |
Is Fukushima wastewater release safe? What the science says
Radiation in the water will be diluted to almost-background levels, but some researchers are not sure this will be sufficient to mitigate the risks.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Comment |
Current conservation policies risk accelerating biodiversity loss
Three approaches that aim to cut the harms of agriculture — land sharing, rewilding and organic farming — risk driving up food imports and causing environmental damage overseas. An alternative approach is both effective and cheaper.
- Ian Bateman
- & Andrew Balmford
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News Feature |
Invasive palms and WWII damaged an island paradise. Could fungi help to restore it?
Researchers ventured to the world’s most remote island to study how fungi in soils could help to revive damaged ecosystems.
- Virginia Gewin
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Editorial |
The world’s plan to make humanity sustainable is failing. Science can do more to save it
There is no planet B, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are heading for the rocks. Researchers around the world must do their bit to change that.
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News |
Battles over funding could threaten historic effort to save species
Following the signing of last year’s major biodiversity deal, countries are arguing over how to fairly finance conservation.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Where I Work |
How I use science to protect my people’s birthright
Jean-Luc Kanapé combines the ancestral knowledge of his Indigenous Canadian community, the Innu, with technology to protect the region’s caribou from predators and environmental damage.
- Patricia Maia Noronha
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Research Highlight |
Baby whales wither away under avian attack
After gulls switched their focus from southern right whale mothers to calves, scientists recorded a drop in calf survival.
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Research Briefing |
What maintains biodiversity in ecological communities?
An experiment testing two opposing theories about how biodiversity is governed in communities was done at seawall structures at the boundary between high and low tides. Rather than the conventional model, the results support one that suggests that immigration has a larger role in maintaining diversity than do niches.
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News |
Deaths of African cheetahs in India shine spotlight on controversial conservation project
Scientists fear that an Indian park is not enough space for the planned population — and that not enough work has been done with locals on how they will respond to the animals.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Article |
Life history complementarity and the maintenance of biodiversity
Ecological models of species with diverse life history traits show that complementary combinations of life history strategy contribute, together with fitness and niche differences, to the maintenance of biodiversity.
- Kenneth Jops
- & James P. O’Dwyer
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Article
| Open AccessUnveiling the transition from niche to dispersal assembly in ecology
This study shows through a field experiment that tropical intertidal communities switch from a niche- to a dispersal-assembled regime as immigration rates rise.
- Lynette H. L. Loke
- & Ryan A. Chisholm
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Article |
Lost world of complex life and the late rise of the eukaryotic crown
Analysis of sedimentary rocks from the mid-Proterozoic interval reveals traces of protosteroids, suggesting the widespread presence of stem-group eukaryotes that predated and co-existed with the crown-group ancestors of modern eukaryotes.
- Jochen J. Brocks
- , Benjamin J. Nettersheim
- & Janet M. Hope
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Editorial |
The inspiring story of the Tara and its 20-year message from the corals
A remarkable research ship’s voyages to understand marine biodiversity show how visionary thinking can boost understanding of the natural world — and help to better preserve it.
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Where I Work |
My mission to grow fruit without the plant
Lucas van der Zee hopes to restore current farmland to its natural state by eliminating the vegetation stage of crop-growing.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News |
Accidental DNA collection by air sensors could revolutionize wildlife tracking
Filters at air-pollution monitoring stations trap DNA from a multitude of flora and fauna, researchers find.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News |
Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippo’ population is even bigger than scientists thought
The most comprehensive census yet reveals that there could be twice as many of the invasive animals than previous estimates indicated.
- Luke Taylor
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Editorial |
Why ideas of ‘planetary boundaries’ must uphold environmental justice
Earth-system boundaries define a safe operating space for humanity. Accounting for the planet’s most vulnerable people provides a stark warning of the work still to be done.'
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News & Views |
How to define unjust planetary change
Biophysical and sociopolitical factors have been integrated into a set of measures of planetary change that aim to pinpoint safe and just thresholds for all living things. The exercise is immensely ambitious and inevitably challenging.
- Stephen Humphreys
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Article
| Open AccessSafe and just Earth system boundaries
We find that justice considerations constrain the integrated Earth system boundaries more than safety considerations for climate and atmospheric aerosol loading, and our assessment provides a foundation for safeguarding the global commons for all people.
- Johan Rockström
- , Joyeeta Gupta
- & Xin Zhang
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Correspondence |
Marine heatwaves: base definitions on ecosystem damage
- Tiantian Li
- , Shilu Tong
- & Xiaoming Shi
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News |
China is using satellites to police the protection of nature — but will it work?
Scientists say the system will help safeguard nature, but they want more transparency about the zones chosen for conservation.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Major ocean database that will guide deep-sea mining has flaws, scientists warn
As sea-bed mining looms, researchers say better records of sea-floor biodiversity are needed to assess its environmental impact.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News & Views |
Tree islands boost biodiversity in oil-palm plantations
The cultivation of oil palm is here to stay. However, a five-year study indicates that creating islands of native trees within oil-palm monocultures increases biodiversity and ecosystem functioning without notably lowering crop yields.
- Robert Nasi
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Nature Podcast |
‘Tree islands’ give oil-palm plantation a biodiversity boost
Five-year study shows islands increase ecosystem health without lowering crop yield, and a house built from concrete and nappies.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article
| Open AccessTree islands enhance biodiversity and functioning in oil palm landscapes
A large-scale, five-year study in Indonesia finds that enriching oil palm-dominated landscapes with patches of trees bolsters biodiversity and ecosystem functioning without impairing oil palm yields but should not replace forest protection.
- Delphine Clara Zemp
- , Nathaly Guerrero-Ramirez
- & Holger Kreft
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Article
| Open AccessMicrobial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage
A deep learning and data-driven modelling study finds that microbial carbon use efficiency is a major determinant of soil organic carbon storage and its spatial variation across the globe.
- Feng Tao
- , Yuanyuan Huang
- & Yiqi Luo
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News |
This paragliding gecko is new to science
The striking lizard was discovered in northeastern India and hints at how much biodiversity is overlooked.
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Where I Work |
Ranching sea cucumbers to repair the oceans — and improve human health
Libin Zhang aims to restore sea-cucumber populations to rebalance ocean ecosystems and so that people can use their beneficial compounds.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News Explainer |
When will global warming actually hit the landmark 1.5 ºC limit?
The planet is on track to reach the 1.5 ºC average by the 2030s — although a new report suggests a single year will probably cross the line much sooner.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Found in the trash: these floating snails hang out in the ocean’s garbage patch
Ocean currents that collect plastic also round up sea life — this striking image shows its bubbly life raft.
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Article |
The evolution of fast-growing coral reef fishes
The high global temperatures of the Eocene and subsequent habitat reconfigurations might have been critical for the rise and retention of the highly productive, high-turnover fish faunas that characterize modern coral reef ecosystems.
- Alexandre C. Siqueira
- , Helen F. Yan
- & David R. Bellwood
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Where I Work |
I was deathly afraid of the sea — now I work to protect it
Conservationist Loyiso Dunga aims to guard kelp, a crucial resource in South African waters that is home to invertebrates, fish and mammals.
- Virginia Gewin
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News Explainer |
The ocean is hotter than ever: what happens next?
Record temperature combined with an anticipated El Niño could devastate marine life and increase the chances of extreme weather.
- Nicola Jones
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Article |
Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes
Comparisons of steroid hormone concentrations in dentin samples from fossil mammoth tusks with those from a modern elephant tusk provide evidence of periodic increases in testosterone in the male mammoth characteristic of musth episodes.
- Michael D. Cherney
- , Daniel C. Fisher
- & Alexei N. Tikhonov
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Correspondence |
Ecology: correct the digital data divide
- Sarab Sethi
- , Robert M. Ewers
- & Rohini Balakrishnan
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Research Briefing |
Tree diversity enhances soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration in natural forests
Biodiversity experiments show that a high diversity of plants increases the accumulation of soil carbon and nitrogen, but whether such conclusions hold in natural ecosystems is debated. An analysis of Canada’s National Forest Inventory provides strong evidence that the build-up of soil carbon and nitrogen on a decadal timescale increased with improved tree diversity in natural forest ecosystems.
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Article
| Open AccessBasin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests
A pan-Amazon study of forests shows large variations in drought tolerance traits and finds that forests in regions of pronounced climate change are losing biomass and may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits.
- Julia Valentim Tavares
- , Rafael S. Oliveira
- & David R. Galbraith
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Article |
Tree diversity increases decadal forest soil carbon and nitrogen accrual
Analysis of data from the Canadian National Forest Inventory database suggests that greater tree diversity in natural forests is associated with increases in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks.
- Xinli Chen
- , Anthony R. Taylor
- & Scott X. Chang
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Where I Work |
I explore my people’s sacred space to protect biodiversity
Zoleka Filander leads research in South African waters to shield vulnerable marine life and honour her Indigenous community.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News & Views |
An evolutionary route to warning coloration
Bright colours that signal toxicity can deter predators, but how such colours initially evolve without first endangering conspicuous organisms is a contentious issue. Analysis of amphibians offers an answer to the puzzle.
- Tim Caro
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News |
Genetic map of Tasmanian devil cancers hints at their future evolution
Most detailed analysis yet pinpoints the contagious tumours’ origins.
- Gemma Conroy
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Editorial |
Is Africa’s Great Green Wall project withering?
The plan to re-green a 7,000-kilometre swathe south of the Sahara is at risk of losing its pan-African vision and ambition.
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