Articles

The Pliocene marine megafaunal extinctions caused functional diversity loss, which was not mitigated by newly evolved taxa in the Pleistocene. This paper points towards an abrupt loss of productive coastal habitats as a key extinction driver.

Predicting declines in commercially harvested species is crucial to avoid overexploitation. An analysis of historical whaling records identifies early warning signals in body size and abundance data 40 years before the collapse of whale stocks.

Marine seismic surveys use high-pressure air guns to explore sub-sea petroleum deposits, but little is known about their impact on marine life. Now it is shown that exposure is linked to increased zooplankton mortality at a range >1 km.

The worldwide spread of four groups of alien ant species has been significantly but differently influenced by major events in recent human history: waves of globalization, world wars and global recessions.

Existing rooting methods to determine ancestor–descendent relations in phylogenetic trees have limitations. A new rooting method called minimal ancestor deviation does not require outgroup knowledge and can be used on any type of data.

Ancient DNA analysis of archaeological cat remains shows cats dispersed along trade routes from the Neolithic era onwards, while its gene pool shows admixture from multiple geographical sources and that the tabby allele originated in the Middle Ages.

Relationships between antibiotic interactions and diversity are often examined in ecologically stable in silico models, but building in biologically realistic features is found to promote coexistence and more diversity than idealized models.

Trees are likely to show lagged responses to climate change because they are sessile and long-lived. Here, the authors show that dominant tree species in North America are out of equilibrium with climate, with range contraction outpacing expansion.

Analysis of eight taxonomic groups across 186 islands and 423 mainland regions reveals that those with the greatest gross domestic product per capita, human population density and area have the highest established alien species richness, with the strongest effects on islands.

Song birds discriminate between the songs of their conspecifics and those of closely related species from a young age. Now it is shown that song discrimination in two flycatchers has a strong genetic component as is not determined by social experience.

It is not fully understood what factors drive population cycles of Antarctic krill. Contrary to previous work focusing on climatic factors, here the authors identify intraspecific competition for food as the primary driver of 5–6 year oscillations.

Assessing the conservation status of 1,020 European marine fishes reveals half of large (>1.5 m) fishes are threatened with extinction and stock status diverges geographically: almost all Mediterranean stock is overfished, most northern European stock is not.

The social environment is rarely considered a factor in models of trait responses to selection. Here the authors show that carrion beetle populations respond to selection for larger body size, but only when parents care for their offspring.

Fatty acid desaturase genes encode enzymes for the biosynthesis of fatty acids that are essential for individuals with plant-based diets. Here, the authors show positive selection on alternative alleles in Europeans before and after the onset of farming and strongest selection in Southern European farmers.

Trace fossil analysis reveals that following initial marginal incursions in the Ediacaran, the marine–terrestrial faunal transition became widespread in the Carboniferous, accompanied by repeated ‘bursts’ of diversification.

Environmental heterogeneity in three-spined stickleback pairs contributes to deviations from parallel evolution, but genomic targets of selection were more parallel between environmentally similar pairs, suggestive of a continuum of parallel evolution.

Reproduction incurs a physiological cost as a result of evolutionary fitness optimization. In male Drosophila, key reproductive costs are shown to be a result of perceiving female pheromones, and the act of mating reverses the costs.

Female aggression towards other females is common in nature, yet we don’t know what triggers such behaviour. Here, the authors show that, in fruit flies, female aggression after mating is strongly stimulated by sperm.

Sessile communities may support high species richness, despite competition for space. Here, the authors use fungal competition assays to show that intransitive competition can overwhelm pairwise competitive exclusion to facilitate biodiversity.

Stable isotope and community faunal analysis of early hominid environments in the lower Awash Valley (Ethiopia) and Turkana Basin (Kenya/Ethiopia) reveal environmental change and divergence coincident with the emergence of the genus Homo (approx. 2.8 Ma).