Ecology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article |

    Through fine-root nutrient chemistry, it is possible to study ecosystem-scale biogeochemical cycling. Compiling data from 211 studies measuring nitrogen and phosphorus in plant roots, Yuanet al. find that tropical ecosystems are more phosphorous-limited than higher latitudes.

    • Z.Y. Yuan
    • , Han Y.H. Chen
    •  & Peter B. Reich

  • Article |

    Migratory segregation presents a hypothesized barrier to gene flow among seabirds, but its mechanisms are unclear. Rayneret al. find that migratory habitat specialization, associated with breeding asynchrony and philopatry, restricts gene flow between two seabird populations migrating across the Pacific Ocean.

    • Matt J. Rayner
    • , Mark E. Hauber
    •  & Scott A. Shaffer

  • Article |

    The cryptic Wood White butterflies,Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali, represent a model for the study of speciation. Dincă et al. use DNA and chromosome data to show that this group, in fact, consists of a triplet of species, a result that provides a new perspective on cryptic biodiversity.

    • Vlad Dincă
    • , Vladimir A. Lukhtanov
    •  & Roger Vila

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global darkness from an asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago led to massive extinction of oceanic phytoplankton, but coastal groups survived. Ribeiroet al.revive coastal dinoflagellates after a century of dormancy, suggesting phytoplankton survived the extinction and helped restore photosynthesis in the ocean.

    • Sofia Ribeiro
    • , Terje Berge
    •  & Marianne Ellegaard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmids are present in many bacteria and are often transferred between different species causing horizontal gene transfer. By comparing the sequences of 25 plasmid DNA backbones, the authors show that homologous recombination is prevalent in plasmids and that the plasmids have adapted to persist in different host bacteria.

    • Peter Norberg
    • , Maria Bergström
    •  & Malte Hermansson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The presence of earthworms is known to enhance the quality and moisture of soil in cool and wet climates. Evanset al. show that termites and ants can improve soil quality in warmer and drier climates—their presence results in elevated water infiltration and nitrogen content, leading to increased wheat yields.

    • Theodore A. Evans
    • , Tracy Z. Dawes
    •  & Nathan Lo

  • Article |

    Storm water runoff and wastewater effluent are discharged into oceans, but the full ecological effects of these discharges are unknown. Here, the authors examine the population structure of a marine organism, the bat star, and show that these discharges alter the genetic structure and larval dispersal of this species.

    • Jonathan B. Puritz
    •  & Robert J. Toonen

  • Article |

    Ocean acidification due to increasing carbon dioxide levels can affect the growth and viability of corals. In this study, the authors measured extension, calcification and density in Florida corals collected in 1996, and show that recent climate change did not cause a decline in their extension or calcification.

    • Kevin P. Helmle
    • , Richard E. Dodge
    •  & C. Mark Eakin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organisms are expected to adapt to climate change because of selection pressures. Here, the authors demonstrate that brown morphs of Finnish owls are selected against in winters with plentiful snow, and concordantly, increasing winter temperatures and lower snow fall results in the selection of the brown morph.

    • Patrik Karell
    • , Kari Ahola
    •  & Jon E. Brommer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The infectious prion diseases affect numerous hoofed animal species, and it has been suggested that the properties of the local soil affect transmission of these diseases. Here, the authors studied two North American locations and demonstrate that soil clay content can influence the infection rate in deer.

    • W. David Walter
    • , Daniel P. Walsh
    •  & Michael W. Miller

  • Article |

    Proteorhodopsin is used by prokaryotes to generate energy from light. In this study, the authors describe a prokaryote-to-eukaryote horizontal gene transfer of a bacterial proteorhodopsin gene to dinoflagellates, suggesting that these eukaryotes can also use proteorhodopsin to obtain light and produce energy.

    • Claudio H. Slamovits
    • , Noriko Okamoto
    •  & Patrick J. Keeling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting ecological impacts of climate change is complicated, because key biological parameters are unknown for future conditions. Using a mechanistic energy budget model to relate sea ice to polar bear reproduction, Molnáret al.predict decreases in litter size with anticipated changes in sea ice.

    • Péter K. Molnár
    • , Andrew E. Derocher
    •  & Mark A. Lewis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the reproductive ecology of freshwater eels. In this article, the authors describe the capture of two species of eels together with eggs and newly hatched larvae, and suggest that spawning takes place during the new moon at shallower depths than previously thought.

    • Katsumi Tsukamoto
    • , Seinen Chow
    •  & Hideki Tanaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microorganisms are abundant in many environments and understanding their dispersal between ecosystems is important for ecology and conservation. These authors demonstrate that cyanobacterial populations are specific to hot or cold deserts and that gene flow between different populations does not occur.

    • Justin Bahl
    • , Maggie C. Y. Lau
    •  & Stephen B. Pointing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single gene results in either dextral or sinistral snail shell coiling and snails with different coils cannot copulate. Here, the authors provide evidence of how such an allele can become fixed in a population by showing that snails with a counterclockwise sinistral coil are protected from predators.

    • Masaki Hoso
    • , Yuichi Kameda
    •  & Michio Hori

  • Article |

    Continental export of silicon to the coast is linked to ocean carbon sinks, but terrestrial silicon fluxes have not been quantified. Here, human deforestation and cultivation of the landscape are shown to be the most important factors in silicon mobilization in temperate European watersheds.

    • Eric Struyf
    • , Adriaan Smis
    •  & Patrick Meire

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge spreads extremely slowly and hydrothermal vent fields have not been reported in its vicinity. Pedersenet al. describe a black smoker vent field with large hydrothermal deposits and novel fauna distinct from those found in similar environments in the Atlantic.

    • Rolf B. Pedersen
    • , Hans Tore Rapp
    •  & Steffen L. Jorgensen

  • Article |

    Invasive species are usually thought to originate from outside a country's borders. Here, using a self-organizing map, Paini and co-workers show that the species most likely to 'invade' the USA are already firmly established within the country, suggesting the need for biosecurity measures within national borders.

    • Dean R. Paini
    • , Susan P. Worner
    •  & Matthew B. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the way bats recognize large objects, such as trees, buildings or a lake. Greif and Siemers show that bodies of water are recognized solely by echolocation, and that this ability is innate, thus smooth surfaces are recognized as water by naive juvenile bats.

    • Stefan Greif
    •  & Björn M. Siemers

  • Article |

    Symbiotic fungi are thought to have assisted plants in their colonization of the land. In this study, it is shown that mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis with liverwort, a member of an ancient clade of land plants, promotes photosynthetic carbon uptake and growth, supporting the role of fungi in 'the greening of the Earth'.

    • Claire P. Humphreys
    • , Peter J. Franks
    •  & David J. Beerling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent work has shown that the transmission of malaria from mosquito to human is inefficient. In this study, an analysis of published literature is used to understand this inefficiency, which is likely due to heterogeneous biting, where 20% of people receive 80% of the bites.

    • David L. Smith
    • , Chris J. Drakeley
    •  & Simon I. Hay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent developments in sequencing technologies have provided the opportunity to investigate the biodiversity of ecosystems. Such a metagenomic approach, combined with taxon clustering, is used here to demonstrate that the species richness of a marine community in Scotland is much greater than anticipated.

    • Vera G. Fonseca
    • , Gary R. Carvalho
    •  & Simon Creer

  • Article |

    The bar-tailed godwit departs from New Zealand for breeding sites in Alaska. Here, using geolocators, godwits are shown to time their migration depending on the latitude of their breeding site in Alaska; early migrators locate in the south of Alaska, whereas later birds breed in the North.

    • Jesse R. Conklin
    • , Phil F. Battley
    •  & James W. Fox

  • Article |

    Global vegetation models are too coarse to predict climate change effects at the hillslope level. Using high-resolution LiDAR, the authors explore the three-dimensional structure and vegetation of an African savanna, and suggest that finer hydrogeomorphological features will shape future climate effects.

    • Shaun R. Levick
    • , Gregory P. Asner
    •  & David E. Knapp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spotted hyaenas live in clans with a hierarchy of females with different social ranks. In this paper, the sons of high-ranking female hyaenas are shown to have greater fitness than sons born of mothers of medium and low rank. This study highlights the importance of maternal effects in evolution.

    • Oliver P. Höner
    • , Bettina Wachter
    •  & Marion L. East

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Female water striders have evolved a strategy to control the frequency of copulation. In this article, male water striders are shown to attract predators during copulation to coerce the female into yielding more quickly. These findings demonstrate how adaptive behaviour may be influenced by predation.

    • Chang S. Han
    •  & Piotr G. Jablonski

  • Article |

    The spatial distribution and parameters that affect soil microorganism communities are largely unknown. In this study, bacterial communities up to 240 metres apart are shown to be similar and are affected by soil pH, plant abundance and snow depth.

    • Andrew J. King
    • , Kristen R. Freeman
    •  & Steven K. Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For conservation purposes, accurate methods are required to track cotton-top tamarins in their natural habitat. As existing census methods are not appropriate for surveying these monkeys, a lure-transect method combined with playback vocalization was used here to allow accurate counting of the animals.

    • Anne Savage
    • , Len Thomas
    •  & Felix S. Medina

  • Article |

    Adoption is an altruistic behaviour that incurs parental costs. Gorrellet al. examined more than 2,000 squirrel litters and showed that red squirrels adopt only their kin, resulting in an increase in their inclusive fitness. These data provide support for Hamilton's rule of altruism.

    • Jamieson C. Gorrell
    • , Andrew G. McAdam
    •  & Stan Boutin

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Ecology across other nature.com journals