Ecology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate that cropland expansion following the historical trend together with closing the current exploitable yield gap by half or more across Africa reduces the continent’s reliance on land conversions and imports by 2050.

    • Shen Yuan
    • , Kazuki Saito
    •  & Patricio Grassini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil organisms are affected by the presence of predatory protists. Here, the authors predatory protists are negatively associated with bacteria wilt disease incidence in tomato plants and that fertilisation enhances the abundance of predatory protists

    • Sai Guo
    • , Zixuan Jiao
    •  & Stefan Geisen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monitoring antimicrobial resistance in food animals is challenging due to limited surveillance systems. Here, the authors combine data from point prevalence surveys in lower- and middle-income settings to map resistance to seven antimicrobials and predict which are likely to exceed key resistance thresholds.

    • Cheng Zhao
    • , Yu Wang
    •  & Thomas P. Van Boeckel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A large proportion of wetland extent is not mapped in currently available national datasets. Incorporating newly revealed wetlands into soil carbon mapping methods increases estimates of wetland soil carbon stock by 482%.

    • Anthony J. Stewart
    • , Meghan Halabisky
    •  & L. Monika Moskal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study reveals the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature buffer inside the tropical forests. It provides insights into the forests’ microclimate that controls the functioning of living organisms residing under the forest canopy.

    • Ali Ismaeel
    • , Amos P. K. Tai
    •  & Eduardo Eiji Maeda

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Natural climate solutions can mitigate climate change but misunderstandings about what constitutes a natural climate solution generate unnecessary confusion and controversy. This Perspective distills five foundational principles of natural climate solutions and fifteen operational principles for practical implementation.

    • Peter Woods Ellis
    • , Aaron Marr Page
    •  & Susan C. Cook-Patton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interactions with angiosperms are thought to have had a significant impact on insect diversification. Here, the authors use a Bayesian process-based approach to find that angiosperm radiation played a dual role that changed through time, mitigating insect extinction in the Cretaceous and promoting insect origination in the Cenozoic.

    • David Peris
    •  & Fabien L. Condamine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree mortality due to climate change and other disturbances is on the rise. Here, the authors use high-resolution remote sensing data, ground observations and deep learning to quantify individual dead trees and potential drivers across California in the year 2020, encompassing 91.4 million dead trees.

    • Yan Cheng
    • , Stefan Oehmcke
    •  & Stéphanie Horion

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dengue virus circulation was unusually low in Brazil in 2015-2018 following the emergence of Zika virus, but subsequently resurged causing large outbreaks with a lower mean age of infection. Here, the authors use mathematical modelling to investigate the links between dengue dynamics and prior Zika infection.

    • Francesco Pinotti
    • , Marta Giovanetti
    •  & José Lourenço

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Live poultry markets in rural areas can be hotspots for transmission of pathogens, but the effects of markets on selection of viral virulence are not known. This study demonstrates through mathematical modelling that high turnover rate and persistence of viral particles can select for highly virulent pathogens in markets.

    • Justin K. Sheen
    • , Fidisoa Rasambainarivo
    •  & C. Jessica E. Metcalf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The response of organic molecules to climate change is linked to warming, nutrient loading, and greenhouse gas emissions, according to an indicator developed to quantify the aggregated thermal response of individual organic molecules.

    • Ang Hu
    • , Kyoung-Soon Jang
    •  & Jianjun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A key assumption of ageing research is that old males are less fertile. A meta-analysis of ejaculate traits challenges this, by showing senescence is not consistently observed across 157 species of animals, but is specific to only certain taxa and ejaculate traits. The study also highlights methodological factors that might modulate the evidence for reproductive senescence.

    • Krish Sanghvi
    • , Regina Vega-Trejo
    •  & Irem Sepil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    What a microbial strain is and how many strains make up a natural bacterial population remain elusive concepts. Here, Viver et al. analyse Salinibacter ruber isolates and metagenomes from two solar salterns, revealing gaps within the species sequence space that they use to define and quantify sub-species categories, such as genomovars and strains, that co-exist in a saltern pond.

    • Tomeu Viver
    • , Roth E. Conrad
    •  & Ramon Rossello-Mora

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.

    • Rachel A. Neugarten
    • , Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
    •  & Amanda D. Rodewald

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In a first global analysis, researchers find that sandy shores are severely squeezed between human infrastructure and the rising sea, as on average, the first road or building is currently situated at just 390 meters distance from the shoreline.

    • Eva M. Lansu
    • , Valérie C. Reijers
    •  & Tjisse van der Heide

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using a global synthesis of size spectra data from pelagic food webs, this study finds that size structure is not driven by temperature as often suggested, but by the nutrient status of the system. This means that modest phytoplankton declines projected for key fishing grounds at mid-latitudes will amplify into substantial reductions in the supportable biomass of fish.

    • Angus Atkinson
    • , Axel G. Rossberg
    •  & Constantin Frangoulis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change is redistributing species poleward, threatening widespread socio-ecological disruption as key tipping-points are exceeded. This study examines space-time dynamics of kelp ecosystem collapse over a 15-year period along the warming coastline of eastern Tasmania and shows that an early-warning signal of kelp ecosystem collapse is recognisable well-in-advance.

    • Scott D. Ling
    •  & John P. Keane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA sequencing methods for characterizing microbial communities are well developed for bacteria, archaea and fungi, but less so for eukaryotic parasites and commensals. Here, the authors present an optimized and validated metabarcoding protocol for host-associated eukaryotic communities.

    • Leah A. Owens
    • , Sagan Friant
    •  & Tony L. Goldberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Agricultural soil C dynamics under climate change are difficult to predict. Here, the authors report that experimental warming increases soil organic C stocks in conservation agriculture but not in conventional agriculture, which appears driven by soil microbial responses to no tillage and C inputs from the crops.

    • Jing Tian
    • , Jennifer A. J. Dungait
    •  & Jizhong Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of cicadas is unclear due to a lack of understanding of transitional features. Here, the authors assess adult and nymph mid-Cretaceous cicadas, to elucidate their morphological evolution and identify evidence of the origins of cicada sound-generation and subterranean lifestyle.

    • Hui Jiang
    • , Jacek Szwedo
    •  & Bo Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although intraspecific dominance hierarchies are common, large scale interspecific dominance hierarchies are unknown. Using data from hundreds of avian species, the authors find that species that are more familiar with each other engage in less aggression and the aggression is resolved more directly.

    • Gavin M. Leighton
    • , Jonathan P. Drury
    •  & Eliot T. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Rühlemann et al. analyze the gut microbiome of wild-living African great apes (Gorillas, Bonobos, Chimpanzees) in comparison to that of humans, identifying host specific patterns and shared evolutionary conserved traits disrupted in humans.

    • M. C. Rühlemann
    • , C. Bang
    •  & A. Franke

  • Editorial
    | Open Access

    Climate change is exacerbating challenges both for global food production and from its environmental impacts. Sustainable and socially responsible solutions for future world-wide food security are urgently needed.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree species may be vulnerable to multiple global change factors. Here, the authors find that more than 17 thousand tree species are exposed to increasing anthropogenic threats, including many species classified as data-deficient in the IUCN Red List.

    • Coline C. F. Boonman
    • , Josep M. Serra-Diaz
    •  & Jens-Christian Svenning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the genetic basis of many natural behaviours and how they contribute to speciation. Here the authors address this by identifying genes linked to migration of a songbird, investigating how these gene are regulated, and connecting them to potential barriers between species.

    • Matthew I. M. Louder
    • , Hannah Justen
    •  & Kira E. Delmore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aedes aegypti transmit several arboviruses and control of the mosquito populations could be beneficial. Here the authors show that deletion of leucine aminopeptidase1 (LAP1) results in mitochondrial defects and abnormal autophagy in sperm, reducing fertility and fecundity of females. LAP1−/− males show no obvious defects in longevity and mating fitness.

    • Xiaomei Sun
    • , Xueli Wang
    •  & Zhen Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study investigates the dynamic associations among microbes in the world’s tropical and subtropical oceans. It reveals that potential interactions vary with ocean depth and location, with most surface associations not persisting in deeper waters. The results contribute to understanding the ocean microbiome in the context of global change.

    • Ina M. Deutschmann
    • , Erwan Delage
    •  & Ramiro Logares

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soils combat climate change by storing carbon but lose considerable amounts of carbon into downstream waters. Here a general process for how microbes transform carbon across soil-to-stream to impact its persistence in the natural environment is demonstrated.

    • Erika C. Freeman
    • , Erik J. S. Emilson
    •  & Andrew J. Tanentzap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The growth in global milk demand has been accompanied by an increase in waste milk disposal. Here, the authors transform waste milk through humification and incorporate the product into attapulgite creating a nano-fertiliser that benefits for plants growing in pots.

    • Yanping Zhu
    • , Yuxuan Cao
    •  & Dongqing Cai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Body colour may be an important factor in insect phenology. Here, the authors show that colour lightness of dragonfly assemblages from the UK, collected between May and October from 1990-2020, varies in response to seasonal changes in solar radiation, suggesting a link between colour-based thermoregulation and insect phenology.

    • Roberto Novella-Fernandez
    • , Roland Brandl
    •  & Christian Hof

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest restoration in LMICs can contribute to global C mitigation targets. Here, the authors assess the economic feasibility of forest restoration methods in Panama, i.e. natural regeneration, native species plantings, and enrichment planting, showing that not all methods are economically viable.

    • Katherine Sinacore
    • , Edwin H. García
    •  & Jefferson S. Hall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heeren et al study the evolutionary genomics of leishmaniasis in Peru and Bolivia to show that parasite hybridization increases the prevalence, diversity and spread of viruses that have been previously associated with disease severity and treatment failure.

    • Senne Heeren
    • , Ilse Maes
    •  & Frederik Van den Broeck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest responses can have major effects on tree architecture and community structure near the edges of forest fragments. Here, using terrestrial LiDAR scanning data from long-term forest plots, the authors find a net negative effect of fragmentation on Amazonian Forest aboveground biomass.

    • Matheus Henrique Nunes
    • , Marcel Caritá Vaz
    •  & Eduardo Eiji Maeda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study uses in situ respirometry assays and transplant experiments with salmonid fish to disentangle the effects of chronic and acute thermal exposure. They show that chronic exposure to warming can attenuate salmonid thermal sensitivity, highlighting the need to incorporate the potential for thermal acclimation or adaptation when forecasting global warming consequences.

    • Alexia M. González-Ferreras
    • , Jose Barquín
    •  & Eoin J. O’Gorman

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Ecology across other nature.com journals