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Analysis of global eco-acoustic data shows that soundscape-based predictions of avian biodiversity do not generalize across datasets, but changes in soundscapes do consistently indicate changes in avian communities.
To link aboveground fire ecology with belowground microbial trait ecology, the authors conduct laboratory experiments followed by analysis of field data from northern Canada. Fast-growing species initially dominate but decline between 1 and 5 yr post-fire, while neither fire survival nor adaptation to a post-fire environment are strong determinants of success.
The authors report genome-wide data from 34 ancient individuals spanning the Holocene, from what is now Brazil, illuminating connections and disjoints between Sambaqui shellmound societies and preceding and later peoples.
A spatially explicit mechanistic model, based on neutral theory, is used to show that changes in apparent diversity in the fossil record of the late Carboniferous and early Permian are explained by variation in sampling intensity through time.
Using a Bayesian approach with neural networks the authors model the demographic history of gorillas, finding admixture from an archaic ‘ghost’ lineage into the common ancestor of eastern gorillas, but not western gorillas.
Temperature response curves of ecosystem respiration from 212 globally distributed sites show widespread evidence for an optimum temperature that is the result of thermal adaptation.
Analysing seabed imagery data spanning 5,000 km and >50,000 megafaunal specimens across the Clarion–Clipperton Zone abyssal plain in the northeast Pacific, the authors identify two distinct biogeographical provinces in which taxa that are dependent on calcium carbonate structures are restricted to depths above 4,300–4,880 m.
Using high-throughput detection of prey DNA from spiders in a grassland ecosystem, the authors reconstruct interaction networks between 50 spider species and 974 prey species and strains, documenting shifting seasonal dynamics.
Antagonistic coevolution of plants and insects is hypothesized to promote biological diversity. This study shows convergent evolution of a gene that encodes the GABA receptor, a target of plant toxins, in herbivorous insects and their predators. It further demonstrates that the evolution of resistant GABA receptors is associated with insect diversification.
Correlations of mutation incidence and fitness changes with the impacts of mutations on immune evasion and ACE2 binding affinity across available SARS-CoV-2 genomes show that immune evasion and ACE2 binding affinity contributed to SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
The authors study social and mounting behaviours in male rhesus macaques across 3 yr, finding that same-sex sociosexual behaviour is both repeatable and heritable within this population.
A systematic assessment finds that at least 5.8% of threatened and near threatened species on the IUCN Red List are likely to be threatened by international trade but that only 59% of these species are currently listed for protection from such trade by CITES.
Camera-trap data for 159 mammalian species at 1,002 sites across 16 tropical-forest protected areas show how local survival and colonization probabilities of specialist and generalist species are differently affected by human-induced stressors at different spatial scales, such as human population density and forest fragmentation.
Fungi exhibit remarkable morphological and ecological diversity. An analysis of the genomes of 123 fungi and relatives shows gradual loss of protist genes, major gene turnover and duplication leading to the evolution of modern traits of filamentous fungi.
The authors report isotopic data from ravens from Pavlovian (29,000–25,000 yr bp) archaeological sites that indicate ravens were consuming the same range of foods as commensal humans at the sites, which the authors refer to as ‘incipient synanthropism’.
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.