Community ecology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temporal niche partitioning is an important feature of animal communities. Here, Vallejo-Vargas and colleagues analyze standardized camera trap survey data from protected areas across the tropics to investigate diel patterns of forest mammals in relation to body mass and trophic guild.

    • Andrea F. Vallejo-Vargas
    • , Douglas Sheil
    •  & Richard Bischof

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aquatic (blue) and terrestrial (green) food webs are part of the same landscape, but it remains unclear whether they respond similarly to shared environmental gradients. Using long-term monitoring data from Switzerland and a metaweb approach, this study reveals how inferred blue and green food webs exhibit different properties along an elevation gradient and among land-use types.

    • Hsi-Cheng Ho
    • , Jakob Brodersen
    •  & Florian Altermatt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    At a time when protecting the environment is urgent, dealing with inherent uncertainties in the responses of biodiversity to disturbances is essential. This study promotes a promising tool to assess the vulnerability of species assemblages to guide protection efforts even if species response and disturbance regimes are poorly documented.

    • Arnaud Auber
    • , Conor Waldock
    •  & David Mouillot

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biotic homogenization, which is increased similarity in the composition of species among communities, is rising due to human activities. Using North American mammal fossil records from the past 30,000 years, this study shows that this phenomenon is ancient, beginning between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago with the extinction of the mammal megafauna.

    • Danielle Fraser
    • , Amelia Villaseñor
    •  & S. Kathleen Lyons

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbes are intimately linked with the fate of organic matter. Here the authors develop an ecological network framework and show how microbes and dissolved organic matter interact along global change drivers of temperature and nutrient enrichment via manipulative field experiments on mountains.

    • Ang Hu
    • , Mira Choi
    •  & Jianjun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using experimental communities of grassland species, this study shows that drought-exposure history can accelerate recovery from subsequent drought through increased niche complementarity between species. This transgenerational effect may enhance the sustainability of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in a future with more frequent droughts.

    • Yuxin Chen
    • , Anja Vogel
    •  & Bernhard Schmid

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lianas are an important component of tropical forests. Here the authors compare liana and tree functional trait distributions from across the tropics and use a liana-tree competition model to show that a key hydraulic trait influences liana viability and its response to future climate conditions.

    • Alyssa M. Willson
    • , Anna T. Trugman
    •  & David Medvigy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear how far the impact of deforestation can spread. Here the authors analyse freshwater eDNA data along two rivers in the Amazon forest, and find that low levels of deforestation are linked to substantial reductions of fish and mammalian diversity downstream.

    • Isabel Cantera
    • , Opale Coutant
    •  & Sébastien Brosse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The positive relationship between species diversity and functional diversity has been shown to vary. Here, the authors use theoretical models and data from Galápagos land snail communities to show how eco-evolutionary processes can force species to evolve narrower trait breadths in more species-rich communities to avoid competition, creating a negative relationship.

    • György Barabás
    • , Christine Parent
    •  & Frederik De Laender

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using a field experiment, this study shows that both lowland and alpine plant species experience greater competitive effects and a reduced ability to coexist towards their elevation range edges due to increased niche overlap and competitive inequality. These findings suggest competition helps set both lower and upper elevation range limits.

    • Shengman Lyu
    •  & Jake M. Alexander

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organisms can alter their physiological response to warming. Here, the authors show that the ability to raise metabolic rate following exposure to warming is inverse to body size and provide a mathematical model which estimates that metabolic plasticity could amplify energy flux through ecosystems in response to warming.

    • Rebecca L. Kordas
    • , Samraat Pawar
    •  & Eoin J. O’Gorman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare species are crucial for biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, the authors combine taxonomic and functional diversity data to quantify rarity across marine fish species, identifying mismatches between rarity hotspots and protected areas.

    • Isaac Trindade-Santos
    • , Faye Moyes
    •  & Anne E. Magurran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species interactions that can enhance habitat heterogeneity such as facilitation cascades of foundation species have been overlooked in biodiversity models. This study conducted 22 geographically distributed experiments in different ecosystems and biogeographical regions to assess the extent to which biodiversity is explained by three axes of habitat heterogeneity in facilitation cascades.

    • Mads S. Thomsen
    • , Andrew H. Altieri
    •  & Gerhard Zotz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amid climate and land use changes, it is important to identify and monitor hotspots of animal activity where disease transmission can occur. Using experimental and observational methods in an East African savannah, this study shows water sources increase the concentration of faecal-oral parasites in the environment and that this effect is amplified in drier areas and following periods of low rainfall.

    • Georgia Titcomb
    • , John Naisikie Mantas
    •  & Hillary Young

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.

    • Linsey E. Haram
    • , James T. Carlton
    •  & Gregory M. Ruiz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species identity and richness both contribute biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. Here the authors apply a decomposition approach inspired by the Price equation to a global dataset of reef fish community biomass, finding that increased richness and community compositions favouring large-bodied species enhance biomass.

    • Jonathan S. Lefcheck
    • , Graham J. Edgar
    •  & Aneil F. Agrawal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phytoplankton communities are important players in biogeochemical processes, but are sensitive to global warming. Here, a meta-analysis shows how the varied responses of phytoplankton to rising temperatures could potentially alter growth dynamics and community structure in a future ocean.

    • S. I. Anderson
    • , A. D. Barton
    •  & T. A. Rynearson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Local patterns of species coexistence across scales could determine the shape of species-area relationships. Here the authors apply a structuralist approach to empirical data on annual plant communities to assess how species interactions shape coexistence- and species-area relationships.

    • David García-Callejas
    • , Ignasi Bartomeus
    •  & Oscar Godoy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Root-mycorrhizal interactions could help explain the heterogeneity of plant responses to CO2 fertilisation and nutrient availability. Here the authors combine tree-ring and metagenomic data to reveal that tree growth responses to increasing CO2 along a soil nutrient gradient depend on the nitrogen foraging traits of ectomycorrhizal fungi.

    • Peter T. Pellitier
    • , Inés Ibáñez
    •  & Kirk Acharya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the dynamics of species interactions can help predict community responses to climate change. A spatially explicit model finds that species interactions and competition mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change, and that temperature-dependent competition makes communities more variable and responsive to changing climates.

    • Anna Åkesson
    • , Alva Curtsdotter
    •  & György Barabás

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Land use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity change. Here the authors measure diversity across multiple trophic levels in agricultural grassland landscapes of varying management, finding decoupled responses of above- and belowground taxa to local factors and a strong impact of landscape-level land use.

    • Gaëtane Le Provost
    • , Jan Thiele
    •  & Peter Manning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Beneficial plant-microbe interactions are common in nature, but direct evidence for the evolution of mutualism is scarce. Here, Li et al. experimentally evolve a rhizospheric bacterium and find that it can evolve into a mutualist on a relatively short timescale.

    • Erqin Li
    • , Ronnie de Jonge
    •  & Alexandre Jousset

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Change in ecological communities can be driven by extrinsic forces, but the degree to which intrinsic population dynamics drive turnover has remained unclear. Here the authors use metacommunity modelling to show that biodiversity change previously attributed to external drivers can be explained based on intrinsic ecosystem dynamics.

    • Jacob D. O’Sullivan
    • , J. Christopher D. Terry
    •  & Axel G. Rossberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment may drive shifts in soil microbial communities. Here, the authors analyse nitrogen and phosphorus addition effects on soil fungi in a distributed grassland experiment across four continents, finding promotion of pathogens, suppression of mutualists, and no shifts in saprotrophs.

    • Ylva Lekberg
    • , Carlos A. Arnillas
    •  & Jeremiah A. Henning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether plant-herbivore interactions systematically favour exotic plant species. Here the authors investigate plant-herbivore and plant-soil biota interactions in experimental mesocosm communities, finding that exotic plants dominate community biomass despite accumulating more invertebrate herbivores.

    • Warwick J. Allen
    • , Lauren P. Waller
    •  & Jason M. Tylianakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advances in process-based community ecology models are hindered by the challenge of linking functional traits to demography in species-rich systems, where a high number of parameters need to be estimated from limited data. Here the authors propose a new Bayesian framework to calibrate community models via functional traits, and validate it in a species-rich plant community.

    • Loïc Chalmandrier
    • , Florian Hartig
    •  & Loïc Pellissier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How microbial community properties change under increasingly complex combinations of resources remains unclear. Here, the authors studied hundreds of synthetic consortia to identify the factors that govern how growth and taxonomic diversity scale with environmental complexity.

    • Alan R. Pacheco
    • , Melisa L. Osborne
    •  & Daniel Segrè

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether invasive species must first establish in conditions within their native climatic niche before spreading remains largely untested. This study presents the Niche Margin Index for estimating climatic niche-matching of alien mammal species to a particular site, which could be used to help predict the success of invasions.

    • Olivier Broennimann
    • , Blaise Petitpierre
    •  & Antoine Guisan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is growing recognition that artificial light at night has wide-ranging effects on plants and animals, including disruption of nocturnal pollination. Here, Giavi et al. show that artificial light at night can also alter the daytime interactions between plants and pollinators.

    • Simone Giavi
    • , Colin Fontaine
    •  & Eva Knop

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ecologists predict that loss of large vertebrates will alter tropical plant communities. Here, the authors report a field experiment on seed mortality and seedling establishment in Borneo, in which experimental defaunation of large seed consumers was functionally compensated by insects and fungi.

    • Peter Jeffrey Williams
    • , Robert C. Ong
    •  & Matthew Scott Luskin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Food web responses to species losses have the potential to cascade to ecosystem services. Here the authors apply ecological network robustness modelling to ecosystem services in salt marsh ecosystems, finding that species with supporting roles are critical to robustness of both food webs and ecosystem services.

    • Aislyn A. Keyes
    • , John P. McLaughlin
    •  & Laura E. Dee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mutualists benefit their partners by providing resources that would be difficult to obtain independently. Here, the authors show in a bacterial community and with mathematical modeling how a mutualist can promote coexistence between competitors by providing them with different limiting resources.

    • Sarah P. Hammarlund
    • , Tomáš Gedeon
    •  & William R. Harcombe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying forest degradation and biodiversity losses is necessary to inform conservation and restoration policies. Here the authors analyze a large dataset for the Atlantic Forest in South America to quantify losses in forest biomass and tree species richness, functional traits, and conservation value.

    • Renato A. F. de Lima
    • , Alexandre A. Oliveira
    •  & Paulo I. Prado

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite growing interest in environmental metabolomics, we lack conceptual frameworks for considering how metabolites vary across space and time in ecological systems. Here, the authors apply (species) community assembly concepts to metabolomics data, offering a way forward in understanding the assembly of metabolite assemblages.

    • Robert E. Danczak
    • , Rosalie K. Chu
    •  & James C. Stegen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change and local anthropogenic stressors threaten the persistence of coral reefs. Here the authors track coral bleaching over the course of a heatwave and find that some colonies recovered from bleaching while high temperatures persisted, but only at sites lacking in other strong anthropogenic stressors.

    • Danielle C. Claar
    • , Samuel Starko
    •  & Julia K. Baum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been hypothesized that domestication can occur through the ‘commensal pathway’ in which the domesticate takes advantage of a niche created as a byproduct by the domesticator. Here, Brooker et al. provide evidence for a commensal domestication process between longfin damselfish and mysid shrimps.

    • Rohan M. Brooker
    • , Jordan M. Casey
    •  & William E. Feeney

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether terrestrial herbivores are able to consume the extra plant biomass produced under nutrient enrichment. Here the authors test this in grasslands using a globally distributed network of coordinated field experiments, finding that wild herbivore control on grassland production declines under eutrophication.

    • E. T. Borer
    • , W. S. Harpole
    •  & E. W. Seabloom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Not all plants are equally able to support native insects. Here, the authors use data on interactions among >12,000 Lepidoptera species and >2000 plant genera across the United States, showing that few plant genera host the majority of Lepidoptera species; this information is used to suggest priorities for plant restoration.

    • Desiree L. Narango
    • , Douglas W. Tallamy
    •  & Kimberley J. Shropshire

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Correlations between tree species diversity and tree abundance are well established, but the direction of the relationship is unresolved. Here the authors use path models to estimate plausible causal pathways in the diversity-abundance relationship across 23 global forests regions, finding a lack of general support for a positive diversity-abundance relationship, which is prevalent in the most productive lands on Earth only

    • Jaime Madrigal-González
    • , Joaquín Calatayud
    •  & Markus Stoffel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The factors that determine whether pathogens co-occur in a host are poorly understood, especially for plant viruses. Here the authors conduct field experiments with the plant Plantago lanceolata and its viruses, showing that viral co-occurrences are driven predominantly by environmental context and host genotype rather than viral interactions.

    • Suvi Sallinen
    • , Anna Norberg
    •  & Anna-Liisa Laine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Eutrophication has been shown to weaken diversity-stability relationships in grasslands, but it is unclear whether the effect depends on scale. Analysing a globally distributed network of grassland sites, the authors show a positive role of beta diversity and spatial asynchrony as drivers of stability but find that nitrogen enrichment weakens the diversity-stability relationships at different spatial scales.

    • Yann Hautier
    • , Pengfei Zhang
    •  & Shaopeng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ecological niche of a given microbe is difficult to define, but can be approximated from the range of biochemical reactions encoded by its genome. Here the authors use these genomic data and analyze them using manifold learning, which generates a diffusion map of the metabolic niche space of over 2500 bacteria.

    • Ashkaan K. Fahimipour
    •  & Thilo Gross

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbes interact in different ways than macro-organisms, but their interactions can still form the basis for broader macroecological patterns like the Species Abundance Distribution. Here, the author shows that thre general ecological patterns can be found in microbes, within and across biome types.

    • Jacopo Grilli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas requires sufficient monitoring data inside and outside of protected areas; such data are lacking in many tropical regions. Here the authors use robust citizen science data on bird occupancy to show that protected areas are effective in maintaining bird species diversity across eight tropical biodiversity hotspots.

    • Victor Cazalis
    • , Karine Princé
    •  & Ana S. L. Rodrigues

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Community ecology across other nature.com journals