Browse Articles

Analysis of the DNA methylomes of two ecomorphs of Astatotilapia calliptera from a single lake, which diverged about 1,000 years ago plus a third riverine ecomorph, from which they likely separated about 10,000 years ago, shows epigenetic differences associated with altered transcriptional activity of ecologically relevant genes, despite low levels of genetic divergence.

Analysis of genomes, epigenomes and transcriptomes of developing sea urchins with divergent life histories shows how natural selection can reshape developmental gene regulatory networks.

Comparing global vegetation trait patterns derived from citizen science data versus those from scientific survey plots, the authors reveal high correlations between the two approaches and improvements over previously published trait maps.

The effects of the redistribution of flora and fauna by European empires are still visible in global biodiversity today and can be traced through the distribution of introduced species. Attempts to solve today’s biodiversity crisis necessitates grappling these colonial legacies head on.

The identification of 21 large inversion polymorphisms in populations of deer mice shows that they are widespread, important for patterns of recombination and likely to be involved in local adaptation.

Compiling data on floral introductions and European colonial history of regions worldwide, the authors find that compositional similarity of floras is higher than expected among regions once occupied by the same empire and similarity increases with the length of time the region was occupied by that empire.

Expert field palaeontologist who made many key discoveries about early human evolution in East Africa.

An innovative isotopic labelling strategy shows that malaria mosquitoes in the West-African Sahel region survive in dormancy over the prolonged dry season. These results have implications for efforts to suppress malaria transmission in Africa.

A theoretical model of a community of species under selection for compatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes predicts patterns of species diversity, abundance, speciation and extinction, and also suggests a link between metabolic demands and latitudinal variation in diversity.

Analysing a compilation of planktonic foraminifera assemblage time series covering the past 24,000 years, from the last ice age to the current warm period, the authors find that responses to warming were highly heterogeneous leading to the emergence of novel assemblages and possibly new ecological interactions.

In the Sahel region of West Africa, An. coluzzii mosquitoes appear to survive the dry season locally, but the relative contribution of this subpopulation to the persistence of the species in the Sahel has remained unknown. Here the authors use stable isotope tracking to determine the fraction of mosquitoes that undergo aestivation, a state of dormancy that allows them to persist through the dry season and maintain yearly malaria transmission.

Analysing a long-term tracking dataset of migrating mule deer, the authors show that the expansion of natural gas energy infrastructure over 14 years along a migratory corridor changes deer behaviour and reduces by more than 38% their ability to keep pace with spring vegetation green-up.

There are many open questions about biogeochemical function in peatlands. Here, the authors investigate the nitrogen cycle of tropical peatlands, finding that a surprisingly high fraction of nitrous oxide production is abiotic and that denitrification is a coupled abiotic-biotic process.

Many academics move countries in pursuit of career opportunities. With every move, personal identities are renegotiated as people shift between belonging to majority and minority groups in different contexts. Institutes should consider people’s dynamic and intersectional identities in their diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Using individual transcriptomes of two ant species, the authors show that caste differentiation is canalized from early development and identify key regulatory genes for the development of ant caste phenotypes.

A comparison of fish community data with reef coral and macroalgae cover at several sites around Polynesia over 11 years and spanning disturbance events suggests that fish community diversity has only minimal influence on coral dynamics, including recovery from disturbance.

This Perspective discusses potential effects of ocean warming on human nutrition provision from coral reef fish, ranging from altered species compositions of fish populations through to changed fish nutrient profiles resulting from altered metabolism, microbiome composition and trophic interactions.

Fitness landscapes were described almost a century ago as smooth surfaces with peaks and valleys that are difficult to navigate. Now, more realistic high-dimensional genotype–phenotype maps show that fitness maxima can be reached from almost any other phenotype while avoiding fitness valleys, which are very rare.