Nature Ecology & Evolution, February 2021
Volume 5 Issue 2, February 2021
Tropical forest community structure
A view through the canopy of this Bornean rain forest in Lambir Hills National Park (Malaysia) shows the diversity of plant forms present in one of the most species-rich forests on Earth, where fundamental trade-offs in resource allocation constrain tree species’ life histories along a narrow axis from fast growth and low survival to slow growth and high survival.
See Russo et al.
Image: Christian Ziegler. Cover Design: Allen Beattie.
Editorial
Editorial | 26 January 2021
Evolution goes viral
The rise of SARS-CoV-2 variants with altered virus biology is bringing viral evolution into the public spotlight.
Correspondence
Correspondence | 21 December 2020
The Brazilian Amazon deforestation rate in 2020 is the greatest of the decade
Comment & Opinion
Comment | 12 November 2020
Researchers using environmental DNA must engage ethically with Indigenous communities
The study of environmental DNA can reveal information about the history and presence of Indigenous communities on their lands — potentially even inadvertently. Better engagement with the ethical aspects of environmental DNA research is required in the field as a whole, and especially for researchers working on Indigenous lands.
Comment | 02 November 2020
Consider divergent regional perspectives to enhance wildlife conservation across Africa
In African wildlife conservation literature, southern and southeastern African voices dominate, giving a false impression of pan-Africanism. We present divergent perspectives from West, Central and the Horn of Africa and argue that empathy towards multiple perspectives offers increased resilience to COVID-19 and other crises.
News & Views
News & Views | 11 January 2021
Timing requires the right amount and type of light
The quantity of UVA/deep violet light varies seasonally and affects locomotor activity in a marine annelid, providing cues for phenology in addition to those provided by change in photoperiod.
Reviews
Perspective | 14 December 2020
Strengthening the evidence base for temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony and its impacts
Five key criteria are proposed to demonstrate robustly that temperature-mediated phenological asynchrony will negatively impact consumers, which the authors show are rarely met in the current literature.
Research
Brief Communication | 23 November 2020
Algal origin of sponge sterane biomarkers negates the oldest evidence for animals in the rock record
By subjecting chlorophyte lipid extracts to pyrolysis, the authors demonstrate that the lipid biomarkers 24-isopropylcholestane and 24-n-propylcholestane can be generated from algal C29 sterol in experiments simulating diagenetic processes, thereby undermining their status as sponge biomarkers.
Brief Communication | 23 November 2020
Geological alteration of Precambrian steroids mimics early animal signatures
Via congruent observations in geological samples and pyrolysis experiments, the authors demonstrate that 26-alkylsteranes posited as sponge biomarkers can form during diagenesis of common algal sterols.
Article | 16 November 2020
The interspecific growth–mortality trade-off is not a general framework for tropical forest community structure
Using demographic data for 1,111 tree species across ten tropical forests, the authors test the generality of the growth–mortality trade-off, finding that it holds in undisturbed but not disturbed forests.
Article | 04 January 2021
Empirical support for the biogeochemical niche hypothesis in forest trees
Based on a global-scale analysis of the leaf elemental composition of tree species, the authors show that shared ancestry is the major factor shaping plant elementomes, thus providing large-scale empirical support for the biogeochemical niche hypothesis.
Article | 04 January 2021
Polarization of microbial communities between competitive and cooperative metabolism
Analysing data from thousands of microbial communities, the authors show that these communities cluster at different ends of the spectrum between resource competition and metabolic cooperation. Cooperative communities tend to have smaller genomes and multiple auxotrophies, whereas competitive communities have larger genomes, overlapping niches and a high potential for antimicrobial activity.
Article | 11 January 2021
Seasonal variation in UVA light drives hormonal and behavioural changes in a marine annelid via a ciliary opsin
The intensity of UVA light, in addition to the photoperiod, is shown to determine seasonal change in the marine mass spawning annelid Platynereis dumerilii.
Article | 04 January 2021
A global horizon scan of the future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on urban ecosystems
The future challenges and potential opportunities of robotics and autonomous systems in urban ecosystems, and how they may impact biodiversity, are explored and prioritized via a global horizon scan of 170 experts.
Article | 16 November 2020 | Open Access
Conservative route to genome compaction in a miniature annelid
This study reports the genome of the miniature segmented annelid Dimorphilus gyrociliatus and reveals no drastic changes in genome architecture and regulation, unlike other cases of genome miniaturization.
Article | 23 November 2020
Gene expression dynamics during rapid organismal diversification in African cichlid fishes
In this study, the authors generate transcriptomic data for 6 organs in 74 cichlid fish species from African Lake Tanganyika to understand the dynamics of gene expression associated with rapid phenotypic evolution.
Article | 30 November 2020
Intercontinental genomic parallelism in multiple three-spined stickleback adaptive radiations
Using data from four adaptive radiations of the three-spined stickleback, the authors examine levels of genomic parallelism and the phenotypic and environmental factors that predict parallelism.
Amendments & Corrections
Publisher Correction | 25 November 2020 | Open Access
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