Ecophysiology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change effects on animals are typically measured as decreases or increases in performance, compared to controls. Because both directions can have cascading effects at the ecosystem level, this study conducts a meta-analysis testing for deviations in biological responses using absolute rather than relative changes, showing that impacts on marine animals might have been largely underestimated.

    • Katharina Alter
    • , Juliette Jacquemont
    •  & Paolo Domenici

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to fundamental anatomical and biochemical differences, C3 and C4 plant species tend to differ in their biogeography and response to climate change. Here, the authors use global observations and optimality theory to map patterns and temporal trends in C4 species distribution and the contribution of C4 plants to global photosynthesis.

    • Xiangzhong Luo
    • , Haoran Zhou
    •  & Christopher J. Still

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Body colour may be an important factor in insect phenology. Here, the authors show that colour lightness of dragonfly assemblages from the UK, collected between May and October from 1990-2020, varies in response to seasonal changes in solar radiation, suggesting a link between colour-based thermoregulation and insect phenology.

    • Roberto Novella-Fernandez
    • , Roland Brandl
    •  & Christian Hof

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study uses in situ respirometry assays and transplant experiments with salmonid fish to disentangle the effects of chronic and acute thermal exposure. They show that chronic exposure to warming can attenuate salmonid thermal sensitivity, highlighting the need to incorporate the potential for thermal acclimation or adaptation when forecasting global warming consequences.

    • Alexia M. González-Ferreras
    • , Jose Barquín
    •  & Eoin J. O’Gorman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Factors behind interspecific variation in masting are unclear. Here, the authors show that, in 517 species of terrestrial perennial plants, masting is more frequent in species that have high stem tissue density, suggesting that stronger stress resistance may buffer against missed reproductive opportunities.

    • Valentin Journé
    • , Andrew Hacket-Pain
    •  & Michał Bogdziewicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors use a dataset of stable isotope compositions of otoliths from Atlantic bluefin tuna to infer the thermal sensitivity of metabolic performance in their first year of life. They then assess the likely trajectories of tuna production until end century under differing emission scenarios in their two main spawning grounds, the western Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.

    • Clive N. Trueman
    • , Iraide Artetxe-Arrate
    •  & Igaratza Fraile

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energetic tradeoffs help determine where individual traits confer a competitive advantage. Here, the authors grow ten Eucalyptus species at four common gardens along a rainfall gradient and show that 50 traits mostly vary as predicted, and that species in their native ranges generally outperform others in height growth.

    • Duncan D. Smith
    • , Mark A. Adams
    •  & Thomas J. Givnish

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosymbioses enable efficient nutrient recycling between heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms. This study shows that nutrient cycling in a cnidarian-algal symbiosis is regulated through resource competition between symbiotic partners. Mutualistic interactions can therefore emerge from mutual exploitation in nutrient–exchange symbioses.

    • Nils Rädecker
    • , Stéphane Escrig
    •  & Anders Meibom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vegetation resilience to drought is underlain by plant physiological responses. Here, the authors combine remote sensing data, explainable machine learning and model simulations to map global vegetation responses to drought linked to physiological processes such as stomatal regulation and light use efficiency.

    • Wantong Li
    • , Javier Pacheco-Labrador
    •  & Rene Orth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents an absolute metabolic index that quantifies how ocean temperature, dissolved oxygen and organismal mass interact to constrain the oxygen budget an organism can use to fuel aerobic metabolism. The index is calibrated with physiological measurements from purple sea urchin and red abalone and the authors test if the index can delimit the distribution of these two species.

    • Murray I. Duncan
    • , Fiorenza Micheli
    •  & Erik A. Sperling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seasons may impose different selection pressures on organisms. Here, the authors propose that species may either maximize gains during the growth season or minimize losses during winter, and provide empirical support of such seasonal specialisation in two closely related butterfly species.

    • Loke von Schmalensee
    • , Pauline Caillault
    •  & Philipp Lehmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using data from the Tara Pacific expedition to investigate symbiont fidelity and patterns of gene expression across a thermal gradient, this study shows that Pocillopora corals have a three-tiered strategy of thermal acclimatization that is underpinned by host–photosymbiont specificity, host transcriptomic plasticity, and differential photosymbiotic associations under extreme warming.

    • Eric J. Armstrong
    • , Julie Lê-Hoang
    •  & Patrick Wincker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forecasts of risks of invasion by non-native species are challenging to obtain. Here, the authors show that mechanistic models based on functional traits related to species’ capacity to generate and retain body heat identify areas at risk of invasion by non-native birds in Europe.

    • Diederik Strubbe
    • , Laura Jiménez
    •  & Carsten Rahbek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although diverse species of teleost fishes are present in polar waters, sharks and rays are relatively rare. This study presents analyses to explain this biodiversity pattern, showing that among-species thermal sensitivity of resting metabolic rates is lower than within-species sensitivity in teleosts, but not in sharks and rays.

    • Yuuki Y. Watanabe
    •  & Nicholas L. Payne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drought can have complex effects on plants due to different responses of photosynthesis, growth and carbon storage. Here, the authors show that tree growth does not always stop before photosynthesis and non-structural carbohydrate may not accumulate.

    • R. Alexander Thompson
    • , Henry D. Adams
    •  & Nate G. McDowell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temperature shapes the adaptation and composition of microbiomes, but whether their enzymes drive the thermal response remains unknown. Using an analysis of seven enzyme classes from worldwide marine microbiome data, this study shows that enzyme thermal properties explain microbial thermal plasticity and they are both finely tuned by the thermal variability of the environment.

    • Ramona Marasco
    • , Marco Fusi
    •  & Daniele Daffonchio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change and earlier snowmelt could potentially extend the growing season for alpine grassland plants. Here, the authors combine field and chamber controlled experiments to show that extending the summer period did not result in prolonged root and leaf growth.

    • Patrick Möhl
    • , Raphael S. von Büren
    •  & Erika Hiltbrunner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How reduced seawater pH and increased carbon dioxide might affect the prominent nitrogen fixer Trichodesmium in phosphorus-limited oceans is poorly understood. This study used phosphate-limited chemostat experiments to show that Trichodesmium may fix less nitrogen for a given amount of phosphorus at low pH. Thus, marine productivity is likely to decline in a future, more acidic ocean.

    • Futing Zhang
    • , Zuozhu Wen
    •  & Dalin Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant respiration at night is assumed to be temperature-controlled. Here, the authors show that temperature controls less than half of the variation in leaf respiration rate at night, and demonstrate how to account for such nocturnal variation in biosphere models.

    • Dan Bruhn
    • , Freya Newman
    •  & Lina M. Mercado

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphorus (P) limitation is pervasive in tropical forests. Here the authors analyse the dependence of photosynthesis on leaf N and P in tropical forests, and show that incorporating leaf P constraints in a terrestrial biosphere model enhances its predictive power.

    • David S. Ellsworth
    • , Kristine Y. Crous
    •  & Ian J. Wright

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors show that Weddell seal mothers mobilize endogenous iron stores during lactation to provide to pups, resulting in iron concentrations in milk 100x higher than terrestrial mammals. This was associated with reduced dive durations in the mother, a cost of reproduction.

    • Michelle R. Shero
    • , Amy L. Kirkham
    •  & Jennifer M. Burns

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lianas are an important component of tropical forests. Here the authors compare liana and tree functional trait distributions from across the tropics and use a liana-tree competition model to show that a key hydraulic trait influences liana viability and its response to future climate conditions.

    • Alyssa M. Willson
    • , Anna T. Trugman
    •  & David Medvigy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding patterns in woody plant trait relationships and trade-offs is challenging. Here, by applying machine learning and data imputation methods to a global database of georeferenced trait measurements, the authors unravel key relationships in tree functional traits at the global scale.

    • Daniel S. Maynard
    • , Lalasia Bialic-Murphy
    •  & Thomas W. Crowther

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organisms can alter their physiological response to warming. Here, the authors show that the ability to raise metabolic rate following exposure to warming is inverse to body size and provide a mathematical model which estimates that metabolic plasticity could amplify energy flux through ecosystems in response to warming.

    • Rebecca L. Kordas
    • , Samraat Pawar
    •  & Eoin J. O’Gorman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest dynamics are monitored at large scales with remote sensing, but individual tree data are necessary for ground-truthing and mechanistic insights. This study on high temporal resolution dendrometer data across Europe reveals that the 2018 heatwave affected tree physiology and growth in unexpected way.

    • Roberto L. Salomón
    • , Richard L. Peters
    •  & Kathy Steppe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to RuBisCO indicates differing nitrogen use strategies of plants and varies considerably. Here the authors show that this variation is largely driven by leaf thickness and phosphorus content with light intensity, atmospheric dryness and soil pH also having considerable influence.

    • Xiangzhong Luo
    • , Trevor F. Keenan
    •  & Yao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How acute deoxygenation events affect tropical marine ecosystems remains poorly understood. This study integrates analyses of coral reef benthic communities with microbial community sequencing to show how a deoxygenation event rapidly altered a shallow tropical coral reef ecosystem in the Caribbean.

    • Maggie D. Johnson
    • , Jarrod J. Scott
    •  & Andrew H. Altieri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory predicts that organisms in varied environments should evolve to be more phenotypically flexible. Evidence combining genetic and physiological variation with thermal acclimation experiments shows that the thermogenic flexibility of wild juncos is greatest in populations where temperatures are most variable.

    • Maria Stager
    • , Nathan R. Senner
    •  & Zachary A. Cheviron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The herbivorous horseradish flea beetle sequesters plant toxins to defend against predators. Here the authors identify glucosinolate transporters expressed in the beetle Malpighian tubules and provide evidence that these reabsorb glucosinolates from the tubule lumen to prevent their loss by excretion.

    • Zhi-Ling Yang
    • , Hussam Hassan Nour-Eldin
    •  & Franziska Beran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in mediating the impacts of drought in tropical trees is unclear. Here, the authors analyse leaf and branch NSC in 82 Amazon tree species across a Basin-wide precipitation gradient, finding that allocation of leaf NSC to soluble sugars is higher in drier sites and is coupled to tree hydraulic status.

    • Caroline Signori-Müller
    • , Rafael S. Oliveira
    •  & David Galbraith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anthropogenic stressors affect many aspects of marine organismal health. Here, the authors expose surgeonfish to temperature and pesticide stressors and show that the stressors, separately and in combination, have adverse effects on thyroid signaling, which disrupts several sensory systems and important predation defenses.

    • Marc Besson
    • , William E. Feeney
    •  & David Lecchini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about gene expression of organisms in the deep sea, partially owing to constraints on sampling these organisms in situ. Here the authors circumvent this problem, fixing tissue of a deep-sea mussel at 1,688 m in depth, and later analyzing transcriptomes to reveal gene expression patterns showing tidal oscillations.

    • Audrey M. Mat
    • , Jozée Sarrazin
    •  & Marjolaine Matabos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organisms living on and inside of plants—such as microbes and herbivorous insects—can interact in complex ways. Here the authors show that a plant virus increases the temperature of the plant and also the thermal tolerance of an aphid species feeding on the plant; this change in thermal tolerance also affects competition with another aphid species.

    • Mitzy F. Porras
    • , Carlos A. Navas
    •  & Tomás A. Carlo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reductions in seawater pH are affecting marine ecosystems globally. Here, the authors describe phenotypic and genetic modifications associated with rapid adaptation to reduced seawater pH in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, and suggest that standing variation within natural populations plays an important role in bolstering species’ adaptive capacity to global change.

    • M. C. Bitter
    • , L. Kapsenberg
    •  & C. A. Pfister

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Warmer temperatures could increase the growth and metabolic rates of microbes. Here, the authors assemble a dataset of thermal performance curves for over 400 bacteria and archaea, showing that metabolic rates are likely to increase under warming, with implications for global carbon cycling.

    • Thomas P. Smith
    • , Thomas J. H. Thomas
    •  & Samrāt Pawar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drought is intensifying due to climate change, impacting forests globally. Here, the authors track nearly 2 million trees through severe drought and show that tree height is the greatest predictor of mortality risk, suggesting that the tallest trees may be the most vulnerable.

    • Atticus E. L. Stovall
    • , Herman Shugart
    •  & Xi Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the water use efficiency of trees changes with atmospheric CO2 variations has mostly been studied on short time scales. Here, a newly compiled data set covering 1915 to 1995 shows how rates of change in water use efficiency vary with location and rainfall over the global tropics on a decadal scale.

    • Mark A. Adams
    • , Thomas N. Buckley
    •  & Tarryn L. Turnbull

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stomata enable gas exchange for photosynthesis but close to promote survival during drought. Here, Henry et al. provide evidence for a safety-efficiency trade-off whereby plants with greater stomatal conductance under well-watered conditions are more sensitive to stomatal closure during dehydration.

    • Christian Henry
    • , Grace P. John
    •  & Lawren Sack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kong et al. use a global trait dataset of 800 plant species to examine the root economics spectrum in relation to root diameter, tissue density and root nitrogen concentration. Nonlinear trait relationships were observed, suggesting allometry-based nonlinearity in root trait relationships.

    • Deliang Kong
    • , Junjian Wang
    •  & Yulong Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Northern tree populations may not benefit under climate change, with implications for assisted migration and range expansion. Here, Isaac-Renton et al. show that leading-edge lodgepole pine populations have fewer characteristics of drought-tolerance, so may not adapt to tolerate drier conditions.

    • Miriam Isaac-Renton
    • , David Montwé
    •  & Kerstin Treydte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has recently been found that stress hormones accumulate in the earwax of whales. Here, the authors use these signatures of stress along with time series of ocean warming and whaling pressure to demonstrate that both stressors were correlated with baleen whale stress over several decades.

    • Stephen J. Trumble
    • , Stephanie A. Norman
    •  & Sascha Usenko

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