Volume 4 Issue 12, December 2020

The pandemic will allow us to fundamentally remodel the way field-based sciences are taught, conducted and funded — but only if we stop waiting for a ‘return to normal’.

Insecticide use could be reduced if dose recommendations move from a toxicological perspective (how much is needed to kill an insect pest) to an ecological perspective (how much is needed to protect a crop).

Global synchrony in tree growth shows a recent rapid rise tied to increasing temperature synchrony, which might alter global carbon sink dynamics.

Two analyses of developmental patterning functions of leg and wing genes in a crustacean provide complementary support for the incorporation of proximal leg components into the body wall during the crustacean–insect transition, but lead to duelling models for which portion(s) re-emerged from the body as wings.

Systematic reviews are a powerful tool to synthesize large volumes of the published literature, but are susceptible to a number of methodological biases. Here, the authors outline mitigation strategies for improving the quality of evidence syntheses.

By simulating experimentally the extinction of three key grazer species from an intertidal community, the authors show that the contribution of individual species to different dimensions of ecological stability is highly context dependent, and may simultaneously be positive or negative.

Analysing >40 plant traits and ecosystem properties over 10 years, the authors find moderate evidence for traits being predictors of ecosystem-level properties within years, but limited evidence for any effect across years.

On the basis of a soil-conditioning experiment, the authors show that while alien plant species are not more competitive than natives when growing in other native soil legacies or non-conditioned soils, they outcompete natives under soil legacies from other alien species, their growth being less negatively affected than those of native species. This points to an invasional meltdown as invasive species increase in presence and abundance.

Tree ring records reveal a global rise in the spatial synchrony of annual tree growth over the past 50 years coinciding with warming trends.

Analysing responses of biodiversity to changes in land use and climate across global ecoregions, the authors identify strong negative responses in both tropical and Mediterranean biomes, driven primarily by low climatic seasonality and the history of human disturbance.

Analysing a global metagenomic data set from the Tara Oceans expeditions, the authors find that the distribution of marine giant virus communities is tightly coupled to that of eukaryotic microorganisms, that these communities are particularly distinct in polar biomes, and that they may sometimes be highly similar both on the surface and at depth.

A combination of computational modelling and empirical data is used to explore the network structure of infection and immunity in CRISPR–Cas host–virus interactions.

Phylogenomic analysis supports a diderm ancestor of the Firmicutes and points to an early origin of two-membraned cells in Bacteria and the derived nature of the Gram-positive envelope following multiple outer membrane losses.

The causes of epistasis in nature are poorly understood. Measuring the genetic basis of cryptic colouration and survival in a field experiment with stick insects, the authors show that epistasis results from ecological variation in natural selection.

Theory, simulations and empirical data are used to show that the phenotypic effect of a mutation varies substantially depending on the specific genetic background, thereby resolving an apparent contradiction between predictions of convex and concave fitness landscapes.

The evolutionary origin of insect wings is unclear. Gene expression and functional analyses show a gene network operating in the terga and proximal leg segments of the crustacean evo-devo model Parhyale hawaiensis, similar to the insect wing gene network.

Comparing phenotypes for the knockout of five leg patterning genes in a crustacean with those of insects, the authors show that insect wings evolved from existing structures present in the common ancestor of crustaceans and insects.

Quantitative trait loci mapping of a cross between red junglefowl and domestic chickens provides evidence for the role of methylation in regulating gene expression in the domestication process.