Ecophysiology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  19 October 2017 | Open Access

  Genetic accommodation via modified endocrine signalling explains phenotypic divergence among spadefoot toad species

  Genetic accommodation is a potential mechanism for the phenotypic divergence of species. Here, Kulkarni et al. compare endocrine responses of three spadefoot toad species to pond drying and suggest how evolution of mechanisms of developmental plasticity may account for trait variation among species.

  • Saurabh S. Kulkarni
  • , Robert J. Denver
  •  & Daniel R. Buchholz

• Article
  10 October 2017 | Open Access

  Cascading effects of thermally-induced anemone bleaching on associated anemonefish hormonal stress response and reproduction

  Elevated temperatures can cause anemones to bleach, with unknown effects on their associated symbiotic fish. Here, Beldade and colleagues show that climate-induced bleaching alters anemonefish hormonal stress response, resulting in decreased reproductive hormones and severely impacted reproduction.

  • Ricardo Beldade
  • , Agathe Blandin
  •  & Suzanne C. Mills

• Article
  09 January 2017 | Open Access

  Regional adaptation defines sensitivity to future ocean acidification

  Global warming is expected to lead to shifts in species' geographic ranges to track preferred temperatures. Here, the authors show that populations of the common periwinkle vary in their sensitivity to ocean acidification, another major global change driver, which could further restrict range shifts caused by warming.

  • Piero Calosi
  • , Sedercor Melatunan
  •  & Simon D. Rundle

• Article
  22 September 2016 | Open Access

  Adaptive radiation by waves of gene transfer leads to fine-scale resource partitioning in marine microbes

  Adaptive radiations are well-known for animals and plants, but not for microbes. Here, Hehemann et al. show that there has been a recent adaptive radiation of bacteria in the Vibrionaceae to use different forms of alginate and that this radiation has been mediated by horizontal gene transfer.

  • Jan-Hendrik Hehemann
  • , Philip Arevalo
  •  & Martin F. Polz

• Article
  04 March 2015 | Open Access

  Ontogenetic asymmetry modulates population biomass production and response to harvest

  The effect of intraspecific body size variation on the efficiency with which energy is transferred between trophic levels is not well understood. Here, Reichstein et al. show that biasing resource delivery toward less efficient consumer life stages can lead to a doubling of consumer biomass.

  • Birte Reichstein
  • , Lennart Persson
  •  & André M. De Roos

• Article
  27 May 2014 | Open Access

  Global warming favours light-coloured insects in Europe

  Large-scale effects of climate on the distribution of insects are unclear. Here, the authors use data from European butterflies and dragonflies to show that light-coloured insect species are favoured in warmer climates, which has implications in forecasting the potential impact of climate change.

  • Dirk Zeuss
  • , Roland Brandl
  •  & Stefan Brunzel