Nature Ecology & Evolution is now open to submissions of Registered Reports, a format that aims to reduce publication bias by reviewing study design and results in two separate stages.

SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in animal reservoirs may broaden the evolutionary potential of the virus and increase the risk of novel variants emerging. There is an urgent need for more-comprehensive surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in nonhuman hosts.

Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, are ready to speed up monotonous coding tasks and teach you new skills. We highlight, with worked examples, some advantages and limitations of using generative artificial intelligence for scientific coding and argue that if you are willing to debug, you can get a head start on more challenging tasks.

An assessment of blue carbon strategies in Belize shows how quantifying fisheries, tourism and coastal risk co-benefits alongside carbon benefits can inform spatial and temporal target setting for nationally determined climate contributions that simultaneously provide societal benefits.

Atmospheric CO₂ concentration measured across a network of towers in North America shows that continent- and biome-scale measurements of the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration are lower than have previously been estimated from plot-level studies.

The authors report an oviparous new specimen of the choristodere Ikechosaurus sp. from the Lower Cretaceous of China, confirming the basal archosauromorph affiliation of choristoderes. Phylogenetic analyses of this specimen along with other extinct and extant amniotes suggest that the ancestral amniote displayed extended embryo retention, including viviparity.

Studying Drosophila melanogaster Y chromosomes with variable levels of heterochromatin generated using genome editing, the authors show that while different Y chromosomes could disrupt gene silencing on other chromosomes, they did not affect sexual dimorphism in longevity.

Analysis of whole genomes of four fox species shows that introgression facilitated adaptation to the hot arid environment of the Sahara Desert and suggests renal water homeostasis as a mechanism of adaptation in the extreme desert specialist species.

Research codes and contracts have been developed to protect Indigenous and marginalized peoples from exploitation and to promote inclusion, so that research will become more beneficial to them. We highlight three important but often overlooked challenges for such instruments, drawing on examples from the San of southern Africa.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework envisages an increasing reliance on large-scale private finance to fund biodiversity targets. We warn that this may pose contradictions in delivering conservation outcomes and propose a critical ongoing role for direct public funding of conservation and public oversight of private nature-related financial mechanisms.

Plastic pollution has rapidly risen to the top of public and policy discourse on the environment. For World Environment Day on 5 June and World Oceans Day on 8 June, we reflect on its intersection with other ocean threats from biodiversity loss and climate change.

Global biodiversity loss has been disproportionately driven by consumption of people in rich nations. The concept of ‘loss and damage’ — familiar from international agreements on climate change — should be considered for the effects of biodiversity loss in countries of the Global South.