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The authors analyse 8,790 prokaryotic pangenomes to identify the ecological variables associated with recent versus old horizontal gene transfer events, finding that gene transfers are more common among co-occurring, highly abundant or host-associated species.
Combining ecophysiological growth models of >135,000 vascular plant species and information on plant growth form, the authors show that 33–68% of the global land surface will experience a significant change in the next 50 years in how climate supports the plant growth forms that define terrestrial ecosystems.
Behavioural innovation provides a key adaptive advantage to wild populations, but it is unclear which experimental assay is the best predictor for innovation. The authors administered a battery of cognitive tests to 15 passerine species to show that performance in problem-solving tasks is most closely associated with innovations in the wild.
Analysis of 210 lepidopteran chromosome-level genomes reveals stability of the 32 ancestral chromosomes and extensive reorganization, including fusion and fission events, in eight lineages over 250 million years of evolution.
Genome analysis of modern and historical elephant seals reveals impacts of a severe bottleneck on the genomes and fitness of individual seals, and the implications for recovery.
Analysing biogeographic patterns in soil viromes based on 1,824 soil metagenomes from sites around the world, the authors show that viral diversity rarely corresponds to overall microbial diversity, with soil texture and moisture being closely associated with viral diversity.
Forest ecotypes of deer mice have longer tails than prairie ecotypes. This study shows that this difference is adaptive and involves changes in six genomic regions, one of which is an allele-specific reduction in Hoxd13 expression that leads to tail elongation.
A meta-analysis of papers that relate reef fish abundance, biomass or species richness to proportion of living hard coral cover finds correlations that are predominantly positive but consistently weak.
The authors use a simulation framework to assess how the dynamics of species’ diversification changed with ecological niche shifts under historical climate conditions. Modelling scenarios with niche conservatism resulted in higher rates of net diversification, recapitulating empirical biodiversity patterns.
Conducting a simulated turtlegrass herbivory experiment across 650 experimental plots and 13 seagrass meadows, the authors show that the negative effects of herbivory increase with latitude, driven by low levels of light insolation at high latitudes.
Mismatch between the ancestry of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes can drive somatic evolution during ageing. Analysis of around 1.2 million mitochodrial somatic mutations in young and old mice shows haplotype-specific mutational patterns and hotspots, and reversion mutations that re-align mito-nuclear ancestry during an organism’s lifespan.
Analysing changes in observations of birds, butterflies and plants in Great Britain over more than 50 years, the authors show that climate change and land conversion have led to increases in richness, biotic homogenization and warmer-adapted communities over both the long and short terms.
A meta-analysis synthesizes the range of effects of megafauna on ecosystems, finding that megafauna significantly increase ecosystem heterogeneity and impact a wide range of ecosystem properties by altering soil nutrient availability, promoting open vegetation structure and reducing the abundance of smaller animals.
Ancient DNA from Soqotra, an island off the coast of Yemen, evidences a population history differing from other areas of the Arabian Peninsula and suggests there has not been complete population replacement throughout the region between the Pleistocene and Holocene.
The authors assemble a large database of native and introduced earthworm species richness and explore patterns of invasions as well as traits of the invasives relative to native species.
Analysing time series in >3,500 naturalized plant species from herbarium data, the authors show that 35% of alien species experience a lag phase lasting an average of 40 years before becoming invasive, with the majority occupying different climatic spaces during the lag and expansion phases.
The authors use the structuralist approach and high-resolution empirical data to develop a mechanistic model that accurately predicts the temporal persistence of pollinators in plant–pollinator communities. They show that mean pollinator persistence is highest in communities with high opportunities for species’ coexistence.
Using zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics, ancient sediment DNA and stable isotope analyses, the authors characterize the ecology of the Homo sapiens individuals associated with the ‘transitional’ Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician technocomplex at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis.
The authors present palaeoclimatic data in the form of stable isotope records from equid teeth spanning 12,500 years of human occupation at the site of Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany, including the earliest occupation of the site by Homo sapiens ~45,000 years ago.