Featured
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Article
| Open AccessConsistent effects of pesticides on community structure and ecosystem function in freshwater systems
The effects of pesticides on individual species could propagate into additional community-wide and ecosystem-level effects. Here the authors use a mesocosm experiment to test how a diverse array of herbicides and insecticides disrupt aquatic community structure and ecosystem function.
- Samantha L. Rumschlag
- , Michael B. Mahon
- & Jason R. Rohr
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Article
| Open AccessAnthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity
Mapping and quantifying degree of forest modification is critical to conserve and manage forests. Here the authors propose a new quantitative metric for landscape integrity and apply it to a global forest map, showing that less than half of the world’s forest cover has high integrity, most of which is outside nationally designed protected areas.
- H. S. Grantham
- , A. Duncan
- & J. E. M. Watson
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Article
| Open AccessDynamic symbioses reveal pathways to coral survival through prolonged heatwaves
Climate change and local anthropogenic stressors threaten the persistence of coral reefs. Here the authors track coral bleaching over the course of a heatwave and find that some colonies recovered from bleaching while high temperatures persisted, but only at sites lacking in other strong anthropogenic stressors.
- Danielle C. Claar
- , Samuel Starko
- & Julia K. Baum
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Article
| Open AccessDomestication via the commensal pathway in a fish-invertebrate mutualism
It has been hypothesized that domestication can occur through the ‘commensal pathway’ in which the domesticate takes advantage of a niche created as a byproduct by the domesticator. Here, Brooker et al. provide evidence for a commensal domestication process between longfin damselfish and mysid shrimps.
- Rohan M. Brooker
- , Jordan M. Casey
- & William E. Feeney
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Article
| Open AccessExcess forest mortality is consistently linked to drought across Europe
Droughts pose an increasingly important threat to forests. Here the authors analyse a high-resolution Landsat-based dataset of forest canopy mortality in Europe over 1987–2016 to show that drought is already a major driver of tree mortality.
- Cornelius Senf
- , Allan Buras
- & Rupert Seidl
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessEnhancement of Aedes aegypti susceptibility to dengue by Wolbachia is not supported
- Thomas H. Ant
- , Maria-Vittoria Mancini
- & Steven P. Sinkins
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessReply to: “Enhancement of Aedes aegypti susceptibility to dengue by Wolbachia is not supported”
- Caetano Souto-Maior
- , Jessica G. King
- & M. Gabriela M. Gomes
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Article
| Open AccessNutrients cause grassland biomass to outpace herbivory
It is unclear whether terrestrial herbivores are able to consume the extra plant biomass produced under nutrient enrichment. Here the authors test this in grasslands using a globally distributed network of coordinated field experiments, finding that wild herbivore control on grassland production declines under eutrophication.
- E. T. Borer
- , W. S. Harpole
- & E. W. Seabloom
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Article
| Open AccessDispersal-induced instability in complex ecosystems
Whether or not diversity begets stability in ecological networks could depend on the spatial dispersal dynamics of species. Here the authors use mathematical models based on Turing pattern formation to show that trophic interactions combined with dispersal can destabilize complex ecosystems.
- Joseph W. Baron
- & Tobias Galla
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Article
| Open AccessContinuous moulting by Antarctic krill drives major pulses of carbon export in the north Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean
Antarctic krill are known to be important to the carbon cycle, but the exact contribution is not known. Here the authors show that krill moulting is a major vector of carbon export in the Southern Ocean, together with krill faecal pellets accounting for almost 90% of annual particulate organic carbon flux.
- C. Manno
- , S. Fielding
- & G. A. Tarling
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Article
| Open AccessEpidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations
Here, Griffiths et al. show infection of 80–100% of sampled vampire bats in Peru with a newly discovered betaherpesvirus (DrBHV) that exhibits specificity within neotropical bats and evidence for superinfection. These data suggest that DrBHV could be a candidate for virally vectored vaccines that spread autonomously through a bat population.
- Megan E. Griffiths
- , Laura M. Bergner
- & Daniel G. Streicker
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Article
| Open AccessNeonicotinoid Clothianidin reduces honey bee immune response and contributes to Varroa mite proliferation
Pesticides could increase bees’ susceptibility to parasites, but the nature of this interaction has been unclear. Here the authors show that the pesticide Clothianidin reduces the wound healing immune response in bees, allowing the ectoparasitic Varroa mites to consume more bee hemolymph and amplify reproduction.
- Desiderato Annoscia
- , Gennaro Di Prisco
- & Francesco Pennacchio
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Article
| Open AccessMigrant birds and mammals live faster than residents
Migration is costly. In the first global analysis of migratory vertebrates, authors report that migratory birds and mammals have faster paces of life than their non-migratory relatives, and that among swimming and walking species, migrants tend to be larger, while among flying species, migrants are smaller.
- Andrea Soriano-Redondo
- , Jorge S. Gutiérrez
- & Stuart Bearhop
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Article
| Open AccessConsistent population declines but idiosyncratic range shifts in Alpine orchids under global change
Many mountain species are threatened by climate change and habitat loss. Here, the authors investigate population declines and range shifts of orchids in an alpine region in NE Italy over 28 years. For most species, population size decreased, while range shifts were idiosyncratic with over half of the species lagging behind climate change.
- Costanza Geppert
- , Giorgio Perazza
- & Lorenzo Marini
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Article
| Open AccessMulti-year incubation experiments boost confidence in model projections of long-term soil carbon dynamics
As the climate warms, soil carbon stores will likely be degraded by microbes and released as CO2, but these predictions are based on laboratory incubations that might not reflect real rates. Here the authors optimize model projections using dozens of short- and long-term incubations in forest and grasslands.
- Siyang Jian
- , Jianwei Li
- & Melanie A. Mayes
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Perspective
| Open AccessFarming fish in the sea will not nourish the world
Marine aquaculture is widely proposed as compatible with ocean sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and human nutrition goals. In this Perspective, Belton and colleagues dispute the empirical validity of such claims and contend that the potential of marine aquaculture has been much exaggerated.
- Ben Belton
- , David C. Little
- & Shakuntala H. Thilsted
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Article
| Open AccessAlaskan carbon-climate feedbacks will be weaker than inferred from short-term experiments
Warming in the high latitudes is expected to stimulate soil organic matter decomposition which leads to enhanced carbon emissions. Here, the authors show that short-term experiments do not capture the complexity of vegetation dynamics in the Arctic and might thus not provide a full picture of long term processes.
- Nicholas J. Bouskill
- , William J. Riley
- & Robert F. Grant
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Article
| Open AccessFew keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species
Not all plants are equally able to support native insects. Here, the authors use data on interactions among >12,000 Lepidoptera species and >2000 plant genera across the United States, showing that few plant genera host the majority of Lepidoptera species; this information is used to suggest priorities for plant restoration.
- Desiree L. Narango
- , Douglas W. Tallamy
- & Kimberley J. Shropshire
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Comment
| Open AccessA framework for research linking weather, climate and COVID-19
Early studies of weather, seasonality, and environmental influences on COVID-19 have yielded inconsistent and confusing results. To provide policy-makers and the public with meaningful and actionable environmentally-informed COVID-19 risk estimates, the research community must meet robust methodological and communication standards.
- Benjamin F. Zaitchik
- , Neville Sweijd
- & Xavier Rodó
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Article
| Open AccessThe thermal response of soil microbial methanogenesis decreases in magnitude with changing temperature
Soil microbes produce more methane as temperatures warm, but it is unclear if they acclimate to heat, or keep producing more of the greenhouse gas. Here the authors use artificial wetland warming experiments to show that after initial spikes in methane emissions after warming, emissions level out over time.
- Hongyang Chen
- , Ting Zhu
- & Ming Nie
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Perspective
| Open AccessRedox-informed models of global biogeochemical cycles
Marine microbial activities fuel biogeochemical cycles that impact the climate, but global models do not account for the myriad physiological processes that microbes perform. Here the authors argue for a model framework that reinterprets the ocean as physics coupled to biologically-driven redox chemistry.
- Emily J. Zakem
- , Martin F. Polz
- & Michael J. Follows
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Article
| Open AccessTree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests
Tree mortality has been shown to be the dominant control on carbon storage in Amazon forests, but little is known of how and why Amazon forest trees die. Here the authors analyse a large Amazon-wide dataset, finding that fast-growing species face greater mortality risk, but that slower-growing individuals within a species are more likely to die, regardless of size.
- Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert
- , Oliver L. Phillips
- & David Galbraith
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Article
| Open AccessEnhanced fish production during a period of extreme global warmth
Fish production is predicted to decrease with anthropogenic global warming. Here the authors analyse fish fossil assemblages from 62–46 My old deep-sea sediments and instead find a positive correlation between fish production and ocean temperature over geological timescales, which a data-constrained model explains in terms of trophic transfer efficiency and primary production.
- Gregory L. Britten
- & Elizabeth C. Sibert
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Article
| Open AccessHistorical and projected future range sizes of the world’s mammals, birds, and amphibians
Long-term dynamics of species’ range sizes play a crucial role in determining extinction risks. Here the authors simulate global vegetation cover and scenarios of anthropogenic land cover change to estimate habitat range sizes of thousands of mammal, bird, and amphibian species since 1700, and project trajectories up to 2100 under four emission scenarios and five socio-economic pathways.
- Robert M. Beyer
- & Andrea Manica
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Article
| Open AccessClimate reverses directionality in the richness–abundance relationship across the World’s main forest biomes
Correlations between tree species diversity and tree abundance are well established, but the direction of the relationship is unresolved. Here the authors use path models to estimate plausible causal pathways in the diversity-abundance relationship across 23 global forests regions, finding a lack of general support for a positive diversity-abundance relationship, which is prevalent in the most productive lands on Earth only
- Jaime Madrigal-González
- , Joaquín Calatayud
- & Markus Stoffel
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Article
| Open AccessEpidemiological hypothesis testing using a phylogeographic and phylodynamic framework
Classical epidemiological approaches have been limited in their ability to formally test hypotheses. Here, Dellicour et al. illustrate how phylodynamic and phylogeographic analyses can be leveraged for hypothesis testing in molecular epidemiology using West Nile virus in North America as an example.
- Simon Dellicour
- , Sebastian Lequime
- & Philippe Lemey
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Comment
| Open AccessIncreasing our ability to predict contemporary evolution
Classic debates concerning the extent to which scientists can predict evolution have gained new urgency as environmental changes force species to adapt or risk extinction. We highlight how our ability to predict evolution can be constrained by data limitations that cause poor understanding of deterministic natural selection. We then emphasize how such data limits can be reduced with feasible empirical effort involving a combination of approaches.
- Patrik Nosil
- , Samuel M. Flaxman
- & Zachariah Gompert
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Article
| Open AccessIntraspecific host variation plays a key role in virus community assembly
The factors that determine whether pathogens co-occur in a host are poorly understood, especially for plant viruses. Here the authors conduct field experiments with the plant Plantago lanceolata and its viruses, showing that viral co-occurrences are driven predominantly by environmental context and host genotype rather than viral interactions.
- Suvi Sallinen
- , Anna Norberg
- & Anna-Liisa Laine
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Article
| Open AccessBryophytes are predicted to lag behind future climate change despite their high dispersal capacities
Bryophytes tend to be sensitive to warming, but their high dispersal ability could help them track climate change. Here the authors combine correlative niche models and mechanistic dispersal models for 40 European bryophyte species under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, finding that most of these species are unlikely to track climate change over the coming decades.
- F. Zanatta
- , R. Engler
- & A. Vanderpoorten
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Article
| Open AccessPolyandry blocks gene drive in a wild house mouse population
This study resolves a long-standing mystery of why t haplotypes, an example of selfish genes, have persisted at unexpectedly low frequencies in wild mouse populations. It shows that multiple mating by females, which is more common at higher mouse population densities, decreases the frequency of driving t haplotypes.
- Andri Manser
- , Barbara König
- & Anna K. Lindholm
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Article
| Open AccessDietary diversity and evolution of the earliest flying vertebrates revealed by dental microwear texture analysis
Microwear patterns on teeth can be used to infer diet as different foods leave different marks. Here, Bestwick and colleagues analyse microwear from the teeth of pterosaurs—extinct flying reptiles colloquially known as “pterodactyls”—to reconstruct their dietary diversity and evolution.
- Jordan Bestwick
- , David M. Unwin
- & Mark A. Purnell
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Perspective
| Open AccessTowards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy
Reducing soil degradation and improving soil management could make an important contribute to climate change mitigation. Here the authors discuss opportunities and challenges towards implementing a global climate mitigation strategy focused on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, and propose a framework for guiding region- and soil-specific management options.
- W. Amelung
- , D. Bossio
- & A. Chabbi
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Article
| Open AccessLocal community assembly mechanisms shape soil bacterial β diversity patterns along a latitudinal gradient
The relative importance of regional species pool and local assembly processes as drivers of beta diversity is unclear. Here the authors investigate soil bacterial diversity patterns along a 3700-km latitudinal gradient in Chinese forests, finding that community assembly processes differ based on environmental heterogeneity.
- Xiao Zhang
- , Shirong Liu
- & Jamie Schuler
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Article
| Open AccessPresence of low virulence chytrid fungi could protect European amphibians from more deadly strains
The pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD) associated with widespread amphibian declines is present in Europe but has not consistently caused disease-induced declines in that region. Here, the authors suggest that an endemic strain of BD with low virulence may protect the hosts upon co-infection with more virulent strains.
- Mark S. Greener
- , Elin Verbrugghe
- & An Martel
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Article
| Open AccessVortex phase matching as a strategy for schooling in robots and in fish
Whether and how fish might benefit from swimming in schools is an ongoing intriguing debate. Li et al. conduct experiments with biomimetic robots and also with real fish to reveal a new behavioural strategy by which followers can exploit the vortices shed by a near neighbour.
- Liang Li
- , Máté Nagy
- & Iain D. Couzin
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Article
| Open AccessGeneral destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales
Eutrophication has been shown to weaken diversity-stability relationships in grasslands, but it is unclear whether the effect depends on scale. Analysing a globally distributed network of grassland sites, the authors show a positive role of beta diversity and spatial asynchrony as drivers of stability but find that nitrogen enrichment weakens the diversity-stability relationships at different spatial scales.
- Yann Hautier
- , Pengfei Zhang
- & Shaopeng Wang
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Article
| Open AccessSeasonal modulation of phytoplankton biomass in the Southern Ocean
Phytoplankton are biogeochemically important but the drivers of their seasonal cycles in the Southern Ocean are poorly resolved. Here the authors use seven years of ARGO float data to measure bloom initiation, decline and termination throughout the Southern Ocean, finding that bloom dynamics are especially sensitive to the coupling between cell division rates and loss processes.
- Lionel A. Arteaga
- , Emmanuel Boss
- & Jorge L. Sarmiento
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Article
| Open AccessMarine plankton show threshold extinction response to Neogene climate change
High-latitude records show large diversity losses of marine plankton, such as radiolarians, with historical climate change. Here, Trubovitz et al. present a low-latitude record spanning the last 10 million years, finding that many high-latitude radiolarians did not shift equatorward but instead went extinct.
- Sarah Trubovitz
- , David Lazarus
- & Paula J. Noble
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Article
| Open AccessForest production efficiency increases with growth temperature
Many models assume a universal carbon use efficiency across forest biomes, in contrast to assumptions of other process-based models. Here the authors analyse forest production efficiency across a wide range of climates to show a positive relationship with annual temperature and precipitation, indicating that ecosystem models are overestimating forest carbon losses under warming.
- A. Collalti
- , A. Ibrom
- & I. C. Prentice
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Article
| Open AccessDeep learning-assisted comparative analysis of animal trajectories with DeepHL
Comparative analysis of animal behaviour using locomotion data such as GPS data is difficult because the large amount of data makes it difficult to contrast group differences. Here the authors apply deep learning to detect and highlight trajectories characteristic of a group across scales of millimetres to hundreds of kilometres.
- Takuya Maekawa
- , Kazuya Ohara
- & Ken Yoda
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Article
| Open AccessSmaller climatic niche shifts in invasive than non-invasive alien ant species
Whether or not species—when introduced to a new location—eventually become invasive has been linked to the specices’ capacity to expand its niche. However, here the authors show that the extent of niche shift is smaller in non-invasive than invasive ant species, questioning this established hypothesis.
- Olivia K. Bates
- , Sébastien Ollier
- & Cleo Bertelsmeier
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Article
| Open AccessPlant species determine tidal wetland methane response to sea level rise
Coastal systems have enormous carbon-sequestering potential, but any positive climate effects can be countered by methane emissions. Here the authors use sea level rise manipulation mesocosms in tidal wetlands to show that shifts in plant community composition have the greatest effect on methane emissions.
- Peter Mueller
- , Thomas J. Mozdzer
- & J. Patrick Megonigal
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Comment
| Open AccessThe multifaceted challenge of evaluating protected area effectiveness
Protected areas (PAs) are the most important conservation tool, yet assessing their effectiveness is remarkably challenging. We clarify the links between the many facets of PA effectiveness, from evaluating the means, to analysing the mechanisms, to directly measuring biodiversity outcomes.
- Ana S. L. Rodrigues
- & Victor Cazalis
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Article
| Open AccessLarge-scale genome sequencing of mycorrhizal fungi provides insights into the early evolution of symbiotic traits
Mycorrhizal symbioses have evolved repeatedly in diverse fungal lineages. A large phylogenomic analysis sheds light on genomic changes associated with transitions from saprotrophy to symbiosis, including divergent genetic innovations underlying the convergent origins of the ectomycorrhizal guild.
- Shingo Miyauchi
- , Enikő Kiss
- & Francis M. Martin
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Article
| Open AccessAccommodating individual travel history and unsampled diversity in Bayesian phylogeographic inference of SARS-CoV-2
Spatiotemporal sampling gaps in existing pathogen genomic data limits their use in understanding epidemiological patterns. Here, the authors apply a phylogeographic approach with SARS-CoV-2 genomes to accurately reproduce pathogen spread by accounting for spatial biases and travel history of the individual.
- Philippe Lemey
- , Samuel L. Hong
- & Marc A. Suchard
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal distribution and conservation status of ecologically rare mammal and bird species
There are many available ways to rank species for conservation prioritization. Here the authors identify species of mammals and birds that are both spatially restricted and functionally distinct, finding that such species are currently insufficiently protected and disproportionately sensitive to current and future threats.
- Nicolas Loiseau
- , Nicolas Mouquet
- & Cyrille Violle
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Perspective
| Open AccessInteractions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution
The social intelligence hypothesis predicts that social organisms tend to be more intelligent because within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution. Here, authors propose that conspecific outsiders can be just as important in selecting for sophisticated cognitive adaptations.
- Benjamin J. Ashton
- , Patrick Kennedy
- & Andrew N. Radford
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Article
| Open AccessHysteresis of tropical forests in the 21st century
Tropical rainforests partly create their own climatic conditions by promoting precipitation, therefore rainforest losses may trigger dramatic shifts. Here the authors combine remote sensing, hydrological modelling, and atmospheric moisture tracking simulations to assess forest-rainfall feedbacks in three major tropical rainforest regions on Earth and simulate potential changes under a severe climate change scenario.
- Arie Staal
- , Ingo Fetzer
- & Obbe A. Tuinenburg
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Article
| Open AccessFuture climate change vulnerability of endemic island mammals
Island ecosystems are notoriously vulnerable to anthropogenic species losses. Here, the authors identify insular hotspots of vulnerability to climate change (under RCPs 6.0 and 8.5) in mammals via a trait-based, quantitative vulnerability framework, finding that exposure to climate change is not a reliable proxy to assess species vulnerability, while sensitivity and adaptive capacity are crucial to understand vulnerability.
- Camille Leclerc
- , Franck Courchamp
- & Céline Bellard
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