Blog

The young ones

An exceptionally preserved juvenile specimen of the lower Cambrian chancelloriid Allonnia phrixothrix from the Haiyan Lagerstätte of southwest China.

See Yang, X. et al.

Image: Xianfeng Yang. Cover Design: Allen Beattie.

Editorial

Editorial | 04 August 2021

Agriculture isn’t all rocket science

Ecological approaches to agriculture have a major role to play, alongside biotechnology.

Correspondence

Correspondence | 02 June 2021

Ignoring species hybrids in the IUCN Red List assessments for African elephants may bias conservation policy

• Hans Bauer
• Aristide Comlan Tehou
• Claudio Sillero-Zubiri

Advertisement Feature

Doing catalyst experiments 100 times faster

High-throughput experiments and AI combo enable chemists to locate catalysts faster than ever

Comment & Opinion

Comment | 12 July 2021

The limits of SARS-CoV-2 predictability

The future of SARS-CoV-2, including the possibility of elimination and eradication, remains uncertain, but much hinges on characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 immunity. The next few months to a year is a critical period for understanding these characteristics.

• Rachel E. Baker
• Sang Woo Park
• C. Jessica E. Metcalf

Comment | 24 May 2021

Transforming Antarctic management and policy with an Indigenous Māori lens

Global conceptions of Antarctica are dominated by colonial narratives despite an ostensibly collaborative paradigm. We argue that an Indigenous Māori framework centring relational thinking and connectedness, humans and non-human kin, and drawing on concepts of both reciprocity and responsibility, offers transformational insight into true collective management and conservation of Antarctica.

• Priscilla M. Wehi
• Vincent van Uitregt
• Krushil Watene

News & Views

News & Views | 28 June 2021

The young and the vestless

A new lower Cambrian fossil locality in South China offers spectacular glimpses into the post-larval development of a wide variety of soft-bodied early marine animals, knowledge of which has been confined to their mature stages until now.

• Nigel C. Hughes

News & Views | 27 May 2021

Coexistence holes fill a gap in community assembly theory

The mathematics of counting holes reveals hidden paths to species coexistence and the obstacles that block the way.

• Andrew D. Letten

News & Views | 21 June 2021

Sperm size evolution

Sperm length unexpectedly varies more than 3,000-fold across species, posing new questions for anisogamy theory and understanding the different forces shaping evolution of the male gamete.

• Matthew J. G. Gage

News & Views | 21 June 2021

Escaping the choosiness trap

Behavioural experiments and genetic manipulations reveal the mechanisms by which Drosophila females plastically alter their choosiness in response to mating, resolving trade-offs of mate choice.

• Jennifer C. Perry
• Ben R. Hopkins

Reviews

Perspective | 01 July 2021

Ecological and evolutionary approaches to improving crop variety mixtures

This Perspective reviews the practical and conceptual challenges inherent in the development of crop variety mixtures, and considers three domains in which they might be particularly beneficial: pathogen resistance, yield stability and yield enhancement.

• Samuel E. Wuest
• Roland Peter
• Pascal A. Niklaus

Research

Matters Arising | 03 June 2021

Empirical pressure-response relations can benefit assessment of safe operating spaces

• Steven J. Lade
• Lan Wang-Erlandsson
• Juan C. Rocha

Matters Arising | 03 June 2021

Reply to: Empirical pressure-response relations can benefit assessment of safe operating spaces

• Helmut Hillebrand
• Ian Donohue
• Jan A. Freund

Article | 28 June 2021

A juvenile-rich palaeocommunity of the lower Cambrian Chengjiang biota sheds light on palaeo-boom or palaeo-bust environments

The authors report a new lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätte from Haiyan, southwest China which preserves an unusually high number of juvenile and larval forms.

• Xianfeng Yang
• Julien Kimmig
• Shanchi Peng

Article | 27 May 2021

Coexistence holes characterize the assembly and disassembly of multispecies systems

Drawing on theory from the field of mathematics known as topology, the authors characterize sets of species that can or cannot coexist in hypergraphs.

• Marco Tulio Angulo
• Aaron Kelley
• Serguei Saavedra

Article | 31 May 2021

Reinterpreting the relationship between number of species and number of links connects community structure and stability

This paper demonstrates that the scaling relationship between the number of species and the number of interactions (links) in a network can explain its local stability and robustness to secondary extinctions.

• Camille Carpentier
• György Barabás
• Frederik De Laender

Article | 24 June 2021

The global distribution and environmental drivers of aboveground versus belowground plant biomass

The fraction of plant biomass in aboveground versus root tissues has implications for carbon storage and dynamics. Here the authors collate a dataset on root-mass fractions and use these data to explore large scale patterns of belowground plant biomass.

• Haozhi Ma
• Lidong Mo
• Constantin M. Zohner

Article | 10 June 2021

Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs

Scrutinizing the empirical evidence for bidirectional trade-offs in fine root traits, the authors show that while these are important in explaining species occurrences along broad temperature and water availability gradients, unidirectional benefits are prevalent.

• Daniel C. Laughlin
• Liesje Mommer
• Alexandra Weigelt

Article | 17 June 2021

Ecological factors influence balancing selection on leaf chemical profiles of a wildflower

Evidence for balancing selection acting on loci that control complex traits is limited. Here, the authors show evidence for past selection on chemical profile in a perennial wildflower by two ecological drivers, herbivory and drought, consistent with balancing selection on this trait.

• Lauren N. Carley
• Julius P. Mojica
• Thomas Mitchell-Olds

Article | 24 June 2021

Random population fluctuations bias the Living Planet Index

A combination of simulations and empirical data shows that random fluctuations in species population time-series data affect calculations of the Living Planet Index, in some cases exaggerating population declines.

• Falko T. Buschke
• James G. Hagan
• Bernard W. T. Coetzee

Article | 21 June 2021

Fertilization mode drives sperm length evolution across the animal tree of life

Sperm morphology is remarkably diverse across animals. A macro-evolutionary analysis of how fertilization mode influences sperm length shows shorter sperm in external fertilizers and spermcasters and a faster rate of evolution of sperm length in spermcasters and internal fertilizers.

• Ariel F. Kahrl
• Rhonda R. Snook
• John L. Fitzpatrick

Article | 21 June 2021

Mating increases Drosophila melanogaster females’ choosiness by reducing olfactory sensitivity to a male pheromone

This study shows that Drosophila melanogaster females are more selective after their first mating because mating triggers the increased release of juvenile hormone, which desensitizes the Or47b olfactory neurons to an aphrodisiac pheromone produced by males.

• Philip Kohlmeier
• Ye Zhang
• Jean-Christophe Billeter

Article | 10 June 2021 | Open Access

Non-uniform tropical forest responses to the ‘Columbian Exchange’ in the Neotropics and Asia-Pacific

The authors assess the impact of Spanish colonization on forest dynamics across the tropics, finding variable responses according to regional land use strategies, as well as other cultural, social and biophysical factors.

• Rebecca Hamilton
• Jesse Wolfhagen
• Patrick Roberts

Amendments & Corrections

Author Correction | 15 June 2021

Author Correction: Transforming Antarctic management and policy with an Indigenous Māori lens

• Priscilla M. Wehi
• Vincent van Uitregt
• Krushil Watene

Publisher Correction | 26 May 2021

Publisher Correction: Towards an ecosystem model of infectious disease

• James M. Hassell
• Tim Newbold
• Katrina M. Pagenkopp Lohan