Nature Ecology & Evolution, April 2021
Volume 5 Issue 4, April 2021
Tundra traits
Diapensia lapponica on an exposed, windy ridge at Ammalortup Nunaa, Greenland. Microclimate and soil chemistry shape plant communities across Arctic and Antarctic tundra. Variation in local environmental conditions heavily influences both structural and leaf economic traits. These trait–environment relationships are generalizable across tundra plant communities and spatial scales.
See Kemppinen et al.
Image: Julia Kemppinen. Cover Design: Allen Beattie.
Editorial
Editorial | 06 April 2021
Beyond the paper
We invite researchers to make use of our community site to disseminate their research and foster discussion.
Comment & Opinion
Q&A | 01 March 2021
Diversity in nature and academia
We talk to Dr Swanne Gordon, a Jamaican-Canadian Assistant Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, United States, about her research on natural diversity and experience as a Black person in academia.
- Vera Domingues
Advertisement Feature
Reducing plastic waste just one goal in seeking sustainability
Bioplastic film developed from engineered bacteria and pulp may help reduce plastic pollution.
Correspondence
Correspondence | 04 February 2021
Safety and security concerns regarding transmissible vaccines
- Jonas B. Sandbrink
- Matthew C. Watson
- Kevin M. Esvelt
News & Views
News & Views | 25 February 2021
Global aerobics before Earth’s oxygenation
Phylogenetic analysis of oxygen-utilizing and -producing enzymes indicates an early emergence of an oxygenated biosphere, providing phylogenetic insight into a question that has more commonly been approached from the basis of fossils and geochemical tracers.
- Noah J. Planavsky
- Daniel B. Mills
News & Views | 08 March 2021
New data on public biodiversity spending
A collation of national spending on biodiversity presents new data and explores the relationship with biodiversity loss, while also highlighting the difficulty in generating indicators for cross-national biodiversity assessment.
- Ben Groom
- Diana M. Weinhold
Reviews
Perspective | 25 January 2021
Ensuring effective implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity targets
Learning from the failure to meet the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the authors recommend effective global and national targets and other measures to ensure the post-2020 targets are more successful.
- Haigen Xu
- Yun Cao
- Henrique M. Pereira
Focus:
Perspective | 28 January 2021
Ten recent insights for our understanding of cooperation
Research on the evolution of cooperation has been revolutionized by advances in genetic, microbiological and analytical techniques. This Perspective highlights recent insights and considers future directions in research on cooperation.
- Stuart A. West
- Guy A. Cooper
- Ashleigh S. Griffin
Perspective | 01 February 2021
Using ecological coexistence theory to understand antibiotic resistance and microbial competition
This Perspective draws on emerging ecological coexistence theory to illustrate how changes in both competitive ability and niche overlap are critical for understanding the costs of antibiotic resistance and the persistence of pathogens in microbial communities.
- Andrew D. Letten
- Alex R. Hall
- Jonathan M. Levine
Research
Article | 25 February 2021
The evolution of oxygen-utilizing enzymes suggests early biosphere oxygenation
Phylogenetic dating of O2-utilizing enzymes indicates a burst of emergence several hundred million years before the Great Oxidation Event.
- Jagoda Jabłońska
- Dan S. Tawfik
Article | 28 January 2021
Fossil data support a pre-Cretaceous origin of flowering plants
Using a novel Bayesian method, the authors infer a pre-Cretaceous origin for multiple angiosperm families on the basis of their fossil record and present-day diversity.
- Daniele Silvestro
- Christine D. Bacon
- Yaowu Xing
Article | 25 February 2021
Consistent trait–environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities
Using plant community trait composition data and microclimate and soil chemistry data from four distinct tundra regions, the authors demonstrate strong, consistent trait–environment relationships across Arctic and Antarctic regions.
- Julia Kemppinen
- Pekka Niittynen
- Miska Luoto
Article | 15 February 2021
Diminishing returns drive altruists to help extended family
Altruism towards distantly related recipients appears to reduce inclusive fitness and is difficult to understand. Here, the authors quantify cooperative payoffs in a Neotropical wasp with high levels of movement between colonies and use inclusive fitness theory to show that diminishing returns to cooperation explain this behaviour.
- P. Kennedy
- S. Sumner
- A. N. Radford
Article | 15 February 2021
Ecology directs host–parasite coevolutionary trajectories across Daphnia–microparasite populations
Ecological factors affect host–parasite coevolution. This study shows how biotic and abiotic forces influence the evolutionary trajectories of Daphnia and its obligate bacterial parasite in 16 replicate ponds.
- Sam Paplauskas
- June Brand
- Stuart K. J. R. Auld
Article | 22 February 2021
Temperature thresholds of ecosystem respiration at a global scale
The authors test for temperature dependency of ecosystem respiration rates across globally distributed eddy covariance sites, revealing consistent temperature thresholds where ecosystem metabolism changes.
- Alice S. A. Johnston
- Andrew Meade
- Chris Venditti
Article | 08 February 2021
Metabolomic signatures of coral bleaching history
Coral bleaching could leave a lasting impact on the physiological functioning of corals. The authors show divergent metabolomic profiles in coral hosts and algal symbionts associated with bleaching history.
- Ty N. F. Roach
- Jenna Dilworth
- Crawford Drury
Article | 25 February 2021
Decadal changes in fire frequencies shift tree communities and functional traits
Using tree community data from 29 tropical and temperate sites that have experienced multi-decadal alterations in fire frequency, the authors show repeated burning generally reduces stem density and basal area, with most pronounced effects in savanna ecosystems and in sites with strong wet seasons or strong dry seasons.
- Adam F. A. Pellegrini
- Tyler Refsland
- Robert B. Jackson
Article | 01 February 2021
Human disturbance causes widespread disruption of animal movement
A meta-analysis pinpoints the severity with which human disturbances, ranging from hunting to habitat modification, affect the movements and home ranges of terrestrial and aquatic animals around the globe.
- Tim S. Doherty
- Graeme C. Hays
- Don A. Driscoll
Article | 11 February 2021
A forest loss report card for the world’s protected areas
A global analysis of deforestation rates in more than 18,000 terrestrial protected areas shows that, once protected area effectiveness is taken into account, only 6.5%—rather than 15.7%—of the world’s forests are protected, well below the Aichi Target of 17%.
- Christopher Wolf
- Taal Levi
- Matthew G. Betts
Focus:
Article | 18 January 2021
The effectiveness of national biodiversity investments to protect the wealth of nature
Using the Biodiversity Finance Initiative methodology, the authors assess the extent and effectiveness of biodiversity investment across different economies. Larger economies invest more in absolute terms and proportional to GDP but invest less once GDP is controlled for, and all biodiversity variables correlated positively with investment.
- Andrew Seidl
- Kelvin Mulungu
- Massimiliano Riva
Focus:
Article | 15 February 2021
Impacts of wildlife trade on terrestrial biodiversity
A meta-analysis of 31 mammal, bird and reptile studies reveals that hunting or trapping for the wildlife trade is associated with decreased abundances, even where harvesting for trade occurs in protected areas.
- Oscar Morton
- Brett R. Scheffers
- David P. Edwards
Amendments & Corrections
Author Correction | 02 March 2021
Author Correction: Vertical transmission of sponge microbiota is inconsistent and unfaithful
- Johannes R. Björk
- Cristina Díez-Vives
- José M. Montoya
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