Ecology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fish Astyanax mexicanus has divergent cave and river-dwelling eco-morphotypes. Here, Hyacinthe et al. show that cave and river fish communicate sonically, but that the sounds produced and the responses elicited in the two morphs depend differently on the social and behavioral context.

    • Carole Hyacinthe
    • , Joël Attia
    •  & Sylvie Rétaux
  • Article
    | Open Access

    There was extensive degradation during the warm middle Holocene and permafrost area was reduced substantially. Here the authors synthesize data across the Tibetan permafrost region and find that paleoclimate is more important than modern climate in shaping current permafrost carbon distribution, and its importance increases with soil depth.

    • Jinzhi Ding
    • , Tao Wang
    •  & Lin Zhao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbial communities of plant leaf surfaces are ecologically important, but how they assemble and vary in time is unclear. Here, the authors identify core leaf microbiomes and seasonal patterns for two biofuel crops and show with source-sink models that soil is a reservoir of phyllosphere diversity.

    • Keara L. Grady
    • , Jackson W. Sorensen
    •  & Ashley Shade
  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single species of electric eel, Electrophorus electricus, has been described. Here, de Santana et al. show that there are three major lineages of Electrophorus distributed across Greater Amazonia and describe two new species, one with a much stronger electric discharge than was previously known.

    • C. David de Santana
    • , William G. R. Crampton
    •  & Wolmar B. Wosiacki
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicted responses to climate change may be informed by evolutionary history. Here, the authors reconstruct the phylogeny of lacertid lizards and investigate how the evolution of this clade has varied with paleoclimates and how closely adapted extant species are to modern climates.

    • Joan Garcia-Porta
    • , Iker Irisarri
    •  & Katharina C. Wollenberg Valero
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding mechanisms of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and stabilisation improves soil-climate feedback predictions. Here the authors show that roots in boreal forest promote organic nitrogen economy and provide a framework on how roots affect decomposition and stabilisation of SOM.

    • Bartosz Adamczyk
    • , Outi-Maaria Sietiö
    •  & Jussi Heinonsalo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linear controllability theories have stimulated research on control of complex networks. Here the authors investigate the concordance between linear and nonlinear approaches in ranking the importance of nodes in nonlinear networks, and conclude that linear controllability may not be applicable.

    • Junjie Jiang
    •  & Ying-Cheng Lai
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Llewellyn and colleagues present evidence of meiotic sex in Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. These findings have implications for the epidemiology of the disease in endemic regions and challenge existing ideas that the parasites are strictly clonal.

    • Philipp Schwabl
    • , Hideo Imamura
    •  & Martin S. Llewellyn
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Investigating malaria transmission at three sites in Uganda, the authors identify super-spreaders and show that super-spreading is more prominent at low-intensity transmission, and that seasonality and environmental stochasticity have a greater influence on super-spreading.

    • Laura Cooper
    • , Su Yun Kang
    •  & David L. Smith
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large brains are expected to be beneficial in variable environments by enabling flexible behavioral responses. Here, the authors show that relative brain size in birds is bimodally distributed in colder, seasonal environments, suggesting that both large and small brains can be adaptive solutions to harsh conditions.

    • Trevor S. Fristoe
    •  & Carlos A. Botero
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) in subsoil (below 0.3 m) to climate change is poorly constrained. Here, the authors map global subsoil (0.3–1 m soil layer) SOC turnover times and find that temperature and in general climate effects are secondary to effects due to soil properties at both local and global scales—this now needs to be regarded for diagnosing subsoil SOC dynamics.

    • Zhongkui Luo
    • , Guocheng Wang
    •  & Enli Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the water use efficiency of trees changes with atmospheric CO2 variations has mostly been studied on short time scales. Here, a newly compiled data set covering 1915 to 1995 shows how rates of change in water use efficiency vary with location and rainfall over the global tropics on a decadal scale.

    • Mark A. Adams
    • , Thomas N. Buckley
    •  & Tarryn L. Turnbull
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conservation planning rarely considers the uncertainty in management outcomes. Here, the authors develop a value of information approach to quantify uncertainty of threat management success and show that it can improve efficiency of interventions across a large sample of threatened species.

    • Sam Nicol
    • , James Brazill-Boast
    •  & Iadine Chadès
  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is thought that fungi protect themselves from predators by the production of toxic compounds. Here, Xu et al. show that a wide range of animal predators avoid feeding on Fusarium fungi, and this depends on fungal production of a bis-naphthopyrone pigment that is not toxic to the predators.

    • Yang Xu
    • , Maria Vinas
    •  & Petr Karlovsky
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean acidification is expected to have a negative impact on calcifying organisms, however, our understanding of the acclimation potential of corals in their natural habit is currently limited. Here, the authors find that scleractinian corals living in high pCO2 conditions cannot fully adapt the chemistry of their internal calcifying fluid compared to corals growing in ambient conditions.

    • M. Wall
    • , J. Fietzke
    •  & A. Paytan
  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Subseafloor microbial activities are central to global biogeochemical cycles, affecting Earth’s surface oxidation, ocean chemistry, and climate. Here the authors review present understanding of subseafloor microbes and their activities, identify research gaps, and recommend approaches to fill those gaps.

    • Steven D’Hondt
    • , Robert Pockalny
    •  & Arthur J. Spivack
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The global ecological predictors of soil priming remain unclear. Here the authors conducted a global survey of soils from 86 global locations using an isotopic approach and find that in more mesic sites with high SOC concentrations, soil priming effects are more likely to be negative.

    • Felipe Bastida
    • , Carlos García
    •  & Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Corals occasionally split their spawning over two consecutive months rather than utilising a single annual event. Here, the authors model coral larval dispersal to show that split spawning may increase the reliability of larval supply to reefs, with implications for recovery from disturbances.

    • Karlo Hock
    • , Christopher Doropoulos
    •  & Peter J. Mumby
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that federal agencies consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to ensure federal actions do not jeopardize the existence of listed species. Here, the authors analyze recorded from 2000–2017 and investigate the role of NMFS in the consultations.

    • Michael J. Evans
    • , Jacob W. Malcom
    •  & Ya-Wei Li
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory suggests that neutral genetic diversity is determined by census population size, but this is not observed empirically. Here, the authors show that in butterflies, neutral genetic diversity correlates with both body size and chromosome number, suggesting that linked selection is also an important factor.

    • Alexander Mackintosh
    • , Dominik R. Laetsch
    •  & Konrad Lohse
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global average, geographical distribution and temporal variations of the 13C isotopic signature of enteric fermentation emissions are not well understood. Here the authors established a global dataset and show a larger emission increase between the two periods (2002–2006 and 2008–2012) than previous studies.

    • Jinfeng Chang
    • , Shushi Peng
    •  & Philippe Bousquet
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stomata enable gas exchange for photosynthesis but close to promote survival during drought. Here, Henry et al. provide evidence for a safety-efficiency trade-off whereby plants with greater stomatal conductance under well-watered conditions are more sensitive to stomatal closure during dehydration.

    • Christian Henry
    • , Grace P. John
    •  & Lawren Sack
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genetic adaptation and physiological acclimation can potentially buffer species against climate change. Here, the authors perform a long-term warming experiment of Antarctic encrusting communities and show that focal animal species failed to acclimate and lacked genetic variation in tolerance to warming.

    • Melody S. Clark
    • , Leyre Villota Nieva
    •  & Lloyd S. Peck
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The empirical consequences of human explorative strategies are not fully understood. Here the authors find that during undisturbed conditions, more-explorative vessels gained no performance advantage while during a major disturbance event, explorers benefited significantly from less-impacted revenues and were also more likely to continue fishing.

    • Shay O’Farrell
    • , James N. Sanchirico
    •  & Andrew Strelcheck
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seagrass meadows are important but one of the most threatened ecosystems globally. Here the authors analyse data about extent and density of seagrasses in Europe from 1869 to 2016, and find evidence of recent trend reversal for declining European seagrass meadows.

    • Carmen B. de los Santos
    • , Dorte Krause-Jensen
    •  & Rui Santos
  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether species’ responses to climate change tend to be adaptive or sufficient to keep up with climate change. Here, Radchuk et al. perform a meta-analysis showing that in birds phenology has advanced adaptively in some species, though not all the way to the new optima.

    • Viktoriia Radchuk
    • , Thomas Reed
    •  & Stephanie Kramer-Schadt
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sea-level rise threatens coastal mangroves, with global consequences for these important blue carbon sinks. Here the authors analyse four Holocene sediment cores from islands in Florida Bay and find that mangroves that comprised the South Florida coastline 4–3000 years ago rapidly transitioned to estuarine conditions, despite low rates of sea-level rise, and propose that their demise was driven by high climate variability.

    • Miriam C. Jones
    • , G. Lynn Wingard
    •  & Christopher E. Bernhardt
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The flexibility of corals to associate with different bacteria in different environments has not been systematically investigated. Here, the authors study bacterial community dynamics for two coral species and show that bacterial community structure responds to environmental changes in a host-specific manner.

    • Maren Ziegler
    • , Carsten G. B. Grupstra
    •  & Christian R. Voolstra
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Competition dynamics between early Earth photosynthetic microorganisms are unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that competition for light and nutrients between oxygenic phototrophs and Fe-based photosynthesizers in surface oceans provides a novel ecophysiological mechanism for the protracted oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere.

    • Kazumi Ozaki
    • , Katharine J. Thompson
    •  & Christopher T. Reinhard
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Atlantic salmon has suffered widespread population declines over the last century. Here, Lehnert et al. reconstruct changes in effective population size of 172 populations based on genomic linkage information revealing mostly temperature-associated population declines with over 60% of populations in decline since 1975.

    • S. J. Lehnert
    • , T. Kess
    •  & I. R. Bradbury
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The functions of color in fungi are not well characterized. Here, Krah and colleagues investigate the color of mushroom assemblages across Europe and show relationships with climate, nutritional mode (saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal) and seasonality.

    • Franz-Sebastian Krah
    • , Ulf Büntgen
    •  & Claus Bässler
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hypsodonty is a durable pattern of dentition seen in mammals with abrasive diets. Here, Melo and colleagues describe new fossils of the stem-mammal Menadon besairiei from the Late Triassic, which show the convergent evolution of hypsodonty before mammals.

    • Tomaz P. Melo
    • , Ana Maria Ribeiro
    •  & Marina Bento Soares
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The increase in needs for agricultural commodities is projected to outpace the growth of farmland production globally, leading to high pressure on farming systems in the next decades. Here, the authors investigate the future impact of cropland expansion and intensification on agricultural markets and biodiversity, and suggest the need for balancing agricultural production with conservation goals.

    • Florian Zabel
    • , Ruth Delzeit
    •  & Tomáš Václavík
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Risk estimates are important measures for the study and practice of conservation ecology. Here, the authors show that such estimates can be substantially biased, and propose an approach to improve accuracy.

    • Kotaro Ono
    • , Øystein Langangen
    •  & Nils Chr. Stenseth
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory drive theory predicts that vocal signalling coevolves with auditory sensitivity, but empirical evidence is limited. Here, Charlton et al. show that vocal characteristics and hearing have coevolved in forest mammals, due to constraints imposed by the local signalling environment.

    • Benjamin D. Charlton
    • , Megan A. Owen
    •  & Ronald R. Swaisgood
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Standard DNA-based analyses of microbial communities cannot distinguish between active microbes and dead or dormant cells. Here, Couradeau et al. use BONCAT (bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging), flow cytometry, and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to identify active microbial cells in soils.

    • Estelle Couradeau
    • , Joelle Sasse
    •  & Trent R. Northen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple drivers maintain unique species assemblages at multiple biogeographic scales. Here, the authors show that the freezing line is a key barrier generating evolutionary differences in temperate and tropical bird communities across a steep elevational gradient in the Himalaya.

    • Alexander E. White
    • , Kushal K. Dey
    •  & Trevor D. Price
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Random walk movement patterns with specific step size distributions are commonly associated with resource search optimization strategies in mobile organisms. Here, the authors show that clonal expansion of beach grasses follows a Lévy-type step size strategy that optimizes early dune building.

    • Valérie C. Reijers
    • , Koen Siteur
    •  & Tjisse van der Heide
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disease transmission is particularly complex at the human-livestock-wildlife interface. Here the authors sample E. coli from wild birds near households in Nairobi and show that antimicrobial resistance gene diversity is correlated with human and lifestock density, while virulence gene diversity is correlated with avian species richness.

    • J. M. Hassell
    • , M. J. Ward
    •  & E. M. Fèvre
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The response of traits and their plasticity to different environments within plant communities is incompletely understood. Here, the authors use field experiments under two climatic conditions to describe the dynamic relationship between ten annual plant species in association with 19 functional traits.

    • Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos
    • , Luis Matías
    •  & Óscar Godoy
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most passerine bird species replace part of their plumage within the first year of life. Here, using data from 4,012 individuals of 19 species, Kiat et al. find that the extent of post-juvenile moult has increased over the past 212 years and this correlated with the global temperature increase in this period.

    • Y. Kiat
    • , Y. Vortman
    •  & N. Sapir