Featured
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Article
| Open AccessMapping the global distribution of C4 vegetation using observations and optimality theory
Due to fundamental anatomical and biochemical differences, C3 and C4 plant species tend to differ in their biogeography and response to climate change. Here, the authors use global observations and optimality theory to map patterns and temporal trends in C4 species distribution and the contribution of C4 plants to global photosynthesis.
- Xiangzhong Luo
- , Haoran Zhou
- & Christopher J. Still
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Article
| Open AccessConvergent evolutionary patterns of heterostyly across angiosperms support the pollination-precision hypothesis
Heterostylous plants have floral morphs bearing female and male sex organs at reciprocal heights. Here the authors show that, across angiosperms, heterostyly is associated with tubed flowers pollinated by long-tongued insects, supporting the Darwinian hypothesis about precise pollen transfer between heterostylous morphs.
- Violeta Simón-Porcar
- , Marcial Escudero
- & Juan Arroyo
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Article
| Open AccessExperimental warming accelerates positive soil priming in a temperate grassland ecosystem
Soil priming could release large amounts of soil C into the atmosphere. Here the authors show that experimental warming boosts soil priming and CO2 emissions in grasslands potentially due to microbial changes. Model accuracy could be improved by incorporating these mechanisms.
- Xuanyu Tao
- , Zhifeng Yang
- & Jizhong Zhou
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Article
| Open AccessContribution of climate change to the spatial expansion of West Nile virus in Europe
West Nile Virus is emerging as an important pathogen in Europe, likely driven by recent climate and land-use changes. Here, the authors estimate the extent of the climate change-driven impact by modelling the change in West Nile Virus ecological suitability across the continent in the absence of climate change.
- Diana Erazo
- , Luke Grant
- & Simon Dellicour
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Article
| Open AccessSynchrony of Bird Migration with Global Dispersal of Avian Influenza Reveals Exposed Bird Orders
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5 is an important pathogen of wild birds and poultry that has also caused infection in humans and other mammals. Here the authors use wild bird movement tracking data and virus genome sequences to quantify how seasonal bird migration facilitates global dispersal of the virus.
- Qiqi Yang
- , Ben Wang
- & Bryan Grenfell
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Article
| Open AccessEffects of climate and environmental heterogeneity on the phylogenetic structure of regional angiosperm floras worldwide
Using a dataset that included 341,846 species in 391 angiosperm floras worldwide, this study finds that the global phylogenetic structure of angiosperms shows clear and meaningful relationships with environmental factors and that current climatic variables have the highest predictive power for phylogenetic metrics reflecting recent evolutionary relationships.
- Hong Qian
- , Shenhua Qian
- & Michael Kessler
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Comment
| Open AccessOpening the door to multi-year marine habitat forecasts
Combining ocean predictions with physiological understanding yields the ability to forecast habitat multiple years into the future for a wide variety of marine organisms. However, several challenges remain before we see the regular production and use of marine habitat forecasts.
- Mark R. Payne
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Article
| Open AccessRisk of introduction and establishment of alien vertebrate species in transboundary neighboring areas
Controlling and preventing biological invasions requires transnational cooperation. This global study identifies land borders at higher risk of non-native vertebrate invasion and identifies human and environmental factors that predict risk hotspots.
- Qing Zhang
- , Yanping Wang
- & Xuan Liu
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Article
| Open AccessMicrobiome convergence enables siderophore-secreting-rhizobacteria to improve iron nutrition and yield of peanut intercropped with maize
Intercropping has the potential to improve plant nutrition and crop yield. Here, the authors intercrop peanut and maize and show that Pseudomonas secreted siderophore pyoverdine play an important role in plant iron nutrition.
- Nanqi Wang
- , Tianqi Wang
- & Yuanmei Zuo
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Article
| Open AccessConsistent stoichiometric long-term relationships between nutrients and chlorophyll-a across shallow lakes
Nutrient limitation is a well-known control of phytoplankton growth, but predicting specific responses in individual lakes based on nutrient data alone has proven challenging. Here, the authors show that long-term signals of chlorophyll-a dynamics in shallow lakes can be captured based on stoichiometric effects of N and P concentrations along a continuum of total N:total P ratios.
- Daniel Graeber
- , Mark J. McCarthy
- & Thomas A. Davidson
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Article
| Open AccessIntensifying rice production to reduce imports and land conversion in Africa
Here the authors demonstrate that cropland expansion following the historical trend together with closing the current exploitable yield gap by half or more across Africa reduces the continent’s reliance on land conversions and imports by 2050.
- Shen Yuan
- , Kazuki Saito
- & Patricio Grassini
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Article
| Open AccessHorizontal gene transfer is predicted to overcome the diversity limit of competing microbial species
Combining theoretical derivation and numerical simulations, this study predicts an ecological mechanism for maintaining microbial coexistence via dynamic neutrality enabled by horizontal gene transfer. This mechanism allows the emergence of microbial diversity beyond the limit predicted by previous theories.
- Shiben Zhu
- , Juken Hong
- & Teng Wang
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Article
| Open AccessPredatory protists reduce bacteria wilt disease incidence in tomato plants
Soil organisms are affected by the presence of predatory protists. Here, the authors predatory protists are negatively associated with bacteria wilt disease incidence in tomato plants and that fertilisation enhances the abundance of predatory protists
- Sai Guo
- , Zixuan Jiao
- & Stefan Geisen
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in food animals using priority drugs maps
Monitoring antimicrobial resistance in food animals is challenging due to limited surveillance systems. Here, the authors combine data from point prevalence surveys in lower- and middle-income settings to map resistance to seven antimicrobials and predict which are likely to exceed key resistance thresholds.
- Cheng Zhao
- , Yu Wang
- & Thomas P. Van Boeckel
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Article
| Open AccessRevealing the hidden carbon in forested wetland soils
A large proportion of wetland extent is not mapped in currently available national datasets. Incorporating newly revealed wetlands into soil carbon mapping methods increases estimates of wetland soil carbon stock by 482%.
- Anthony J. Stewart
- , Meghan Halabisky
- & L. Monika Moskal
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Article
| Open AccessSalinity causes widespread restriction of methane emissions from small inland waters
Small inland water bodies are widely seen as important sources of methane to the atmosphere. This study demonstrates that hardwater ecosystems emit less of this potent greenhouse gas than predicted due to complex biogeochemical controls
- Cynthia Soued
- , Matthew J. Bogard
- & Paige Kowal
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Article
| Open AccessPatterns of tropical forest understory temperatures
This study reveals the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature buffer inside the tropical forests. It provides insights into the forests’ microclimate that controls the functioning of living organisms residing under the forest canopy.
- Ali Ismaeel
- , Amos P. K. Tai
- & Eduardo Eiji Maeda
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Perspective
| Open AccessThe principles of natural climate solutions
Natural climate solutions can mitigate climate change but misunderstandings about what constitutes a natural climate solution generate unnecessary confusion and controversy. This Perspective distills five foundational principles of natural climate solutions and fifteen operational principles for practical implementation.
- Peter Woods Ellis
- , Aaron Marr Page
- & Susan C. Cook-Patton
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Article
| Open AccessGreenhouse gas emissions from US irrigation pumping and implications for climate-smart irrigation policy
This study demonstrates the energy use of US pump irrigation produced 12.6 million tonnes CO2e in 2018, with spatial variability modulated by water source and fuel choice. These county-level estimates can inform strategic irrigation expansion and emissions reduction efforts.
- Avery W. Driscoll
- , Richard T. Conant
- & Nathaniel D. Mueller
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Article
| Open AccessThe angiosperm radiation played a dual role in the diversification of insects and insect pollinators
Interactions with angiosperms are thought to have had a significant impact on insect diversification. Here, the authors use a Bayesian process-based approach to find that angiosperm radiation played a dual role that changed through time, mitigating insect extinction in the Cretaceous and promoting insect origination in the Cenozoic.
- David Peris
- & Fabien L. Condamine
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Article
| Open AccessScattered tree death contributes to substantial forest loss in California
Tree mortality due to climate change and other disturbances is on the rise. Here, the authors use high-resolution remote sensing data, ground observations and deep learning to quantify individual dead trees and potential drivers across California in the year 2020, encompassing 91.4 million dead trees.
- Yan Cheng
- , Stefan Oehmcke
- & Stéphanie Horion
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Article
| Open AccessShifting patterns of dengue three years after Zika virus emergence in Brazil
Dengue virus circulation was unusually low in Brazil in 2015-2018 following the emergence of Zika virus, but subsequently resurged causing large outbreaks with a lower mean age of infection. Here, the authors use mathematical modelling to investigate the links between dengue dynamics and prior Zika infection.
- Francesco Pinotti
- , Marta Giovanetti
- & José Lourenço
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Article
| Open AccessDrought may exacerbate dryland soil inorganic carbon loss under warming climate conditions
Drought is shown to enhance the temperature sensitivity of soil inorganic carbon dissolution but to weaken that of soil organic carbon decomposition, indicating that drought may exacerbate dryland soil carbon loss from inorganic carbon under warming.
- Jinquan Li
- , Junmin Pei
- & Ming Nie
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Article
| Open AccessMarkets as drivers of selection for highly virulent poultry pathogens
Live poultry markets in rural areas can be hotspots for transmission of pathogens, but the effects of markets on selection of viral virulence are not known. This study demonstrates through mathematical modelling that high turnover rate and persistence of viral particles can select for highly virulent pathogens in markets.
- Justin K. Sheen
- , Fidisoa Rasambainarivo
- & C. Jessica E. Metcalf
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Article
| Open AccessThermal responses of dissolved organic matter under global change
The response of organic molecules to climate change is linked to warming, nutrient loading, and greenhouse gas emissions, according to an indicator developed to quantify the aggregated thermal response of individual organic molecules.
- Ang Hu
- , Kyoung-Soon Jang
- & Jianjun Wang
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Article
| Open AccessMeta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals
A key assumption of ageing research is that old males are less fertile. A meta-analysis of ejaculate traits challenges this, by showing senescence is not consistently observed across 157 species of animals, but is specific to only certain taxa and ejaculate traits. The study also highlights methodological factors that might modulate the evidence for reproductive senescence.
- Krish Sanghvi
- , Regina Vega-Trejo
- & Irem Sepil
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Article
| Open AccessHost- plasmid network structure in wastewater is linked to antimicrobial resistance genes
Authors apply theory and microbial ecology modelling to a wastewater sample, and show that antimicrobial resistance carrying plasmids interact with a higher number and more diverse range of bacteria than plasmids that do not carry resistance genes.
- Alice Risely
- , Arthur Newbury
- & Dirk Sanders
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Article
| Open AccessTowards estimating the number of strains that make up a natural bacterial population
What a microbial strain is and how many strains make up a natural bacterial population remain elusive concepts. Here, Viver et al. analyse Salinibacter ruber isolates and metagenomes from two solar salterns, revealing gaps within the species sequence space that they use to define and quantify sub-species categories, such as genomovars and strains, that co-exist in a saltern pond.
- Tomeu Viver
- , Roth E. Conrad
- & Ramon Rossello-Mora
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Article
| Open AccessMapping the planet’s critical areas for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people
This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.
- Rachel A. Neugarten
- , Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
- & Amanda D. Rodewald
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Article
| Open AccessA global analysis of how human infrastructure squeezes sandy coasts
In a first global analysis, researchers find that sandy shores are severely squeezed between human infrastructure and the rising sea, as on average, the first road or building is currently situated at just 390 meters distance from the shoreline.
- Eva M. Lansu
- , Valérie C. Reijers
- & Tjisse van der Heide
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Article
| Open AccessSteeper size spectra with decreasing phytoplankton biomass indicate strong trophic amplification and future fish declines
Using a global synthesis of size spectra data from pelagic food webs, this study finds that size structure is not driven by temperature as often suggested, but by the nutrient status of the system. This means that modest phytoplankton declines projected for key fishing grounds at mid-latitudes will amplify into substantial reductions in the supportable biomass of fish.
- Angus Atkinson
- , Axel G. Rossberg
- & Constantin Frangoulis
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Article
| Open AccessClimate-driven invasion and incipient warnings of kelp ecosystem collapse
Climate change is redistributing species poleward, threatening widespread socio-ecological disruption as key tipping-points are exceeded. This study examines space-time dynamics of kelp ecosystem collapse over a 15-year period along the warming coastline of eastern Tasmania and shows that an early-warning signal of kelp ecosystem collapse is recognisable well-in-advance.
- Scott D. Ling
- & John P. Keane
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Article
| Open AccessVESPA: an optimized protocol for accurate metabarcoding-based characterization of vertebrate eukaryotic endosymbiont and parasite assemblages
DNA sequencing methods for characterizing microbial communities are well developed for bacteria, archaea and fungi, but less so for eukaryotic parasites and commensals. Here, the authors present an optimized and validated metabarcoding protocol for host-associated eukaryotic communities.
- Leah A. Owens
- , Sagan Friant
- & Tony L. Goldberg
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Article
| Open AccessMicrobially mediated mechanisms underlie soil carbon accrual by conservation agriculture under decade-long warming
Agricultural soil C dynamics under climate change are difficult to predict. Here, the authors report that experimental warming increases soil organic C stocks in conservation agriculture but not in conventional agriculture, which appears driven by soil microbial responses to no tillage and C inputs from the crops.
- Jing Tian
- , Jennifer A. J. Dungait
- & Jizhong Zhou
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Article
| Open AccessMesozoic evolution of cicadas and their origins of vocalization and root feeding
The evolution of cicadas is unclear due to a lack of understanding of transitional features. Here, the authors assess adult and nymph mid-Cretaceous cicadas, to elucidate their morphological evolution and identify evidence of the origins of cicada sound-generation and subterranean lifestyle.
- Hui Jiang
- , Jacek Szwedo
- & Bo Wang
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Article
| Open AccessBiotic homogenization, lower soil fungal diversity and fewer rare taxa in arable soils across Europe
How arable farming affects soil fungal biogeography is poorly understood. Here, the authors find that prevalent fungal groups become more abundant, whereas rare groups become fewer or absent in arable lands across Europe, suggesting a biotic homogenization due to arable farming.
- Samiran Banerjee
- , Cheng Zhao
- & Marcel G. A. van der Heijden
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Article
| Open AccessUnfamiliarity generates costly aggression in interspecific avian dominance hierarchies
Although intraspecific dominance hierarchies are common, large scale interspecific dominance hierarchies are unknown. Using data from hundreds of avian species, the authors find that species that are more familiar with each other engage in less aggression and the aggression is resolved more directly.
- Gavin M. Leighton
- , Jonathan P. Drury
- & Eliot T. Miller
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Article
| Open AccessFunctional host-specific adaptation of the intestinal microbiome in hominids
Here, Rühlemann et al. analyze the gut microbiome of wild-living African great apes (Gorillas, Bonobos, Chimpanzees) in comparison to that of humans, identifying host specific patterns and shared evolutionary conserved traits disrupted in humans.
- M. C. Rühlemann
- , C. Bang
- & A. Franke
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Editorial
| Open AccessFeeding the future global population
Climate change is exacerbating challenges both for global food production and from its environmental impacts. Sustainable and socially responsible solutions for future world-wide food security are urgently needed.
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Article
| Open AccessAfrican bushpigs exhibit porous species boundaries and appeared in Madagascar concurrently with human arrival
The evolutionary history of pigs in Africa is unclear. Here, the authors examine 67 whole genomes, finding incomplete speciation between bushpigs and red river hogs as well as evidence suggesting that humans brought bushpigs to Madagascar 1000-5000 years ago.
- Renzo F. Balboa
- , Laura D. Bertola
- & Rasmus Heller
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Article
| Open AccessMore than 17,000 tree species are at risk from rapid global change
Tree species may be vulnerable to multiple global change factors. Here, the authors find that more than 17 thousand tree species are exposed to increasing anthropogenic threats, including many species classified as data-deficient in the IUCN Red List.
- Coline C. F. Boonman
- , Josep M. Serra-Diaz
- & Jens-Christian Svenning
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Article
| Open AccessLand management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands
Soil microbial communities are affected by climate extremes. Here, the authors impose experimental drought across 30 UK grasslands showing that bacteria and fungi exhibit drought resistance but that intensive management has a negative impact on fungi drought resilience.
- J. M. Lavallee
- , M. Chomel
- & R. D. Bardgett
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Article
| Open AccessPervasive associations between dark septate endophytic fungi with tree root and soil microbiomes across Europe
While mycorrhizal-plant interactions are widely studied, other root symbionts may also be ecologically important. Here, the authors show that dark septate endophytes are a strong predictor of rhizosphere and associated soil microbiomes in broad-leaved tree across Europe.
- Tarquin Netherway
- , Jan Bengtsson
- & Mohammad Bahram
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Article
| Open AccessEffects of plant tissue permeability on invasion and population bottlenecks of a phytopathogen
Bottleneck effects of plant barriers on pathogenic invasions remain unclear. Using a random barcoding approach, this study investigates how plant root permeability limits the invasion and population bottlenecks of a phytopathogenic Ralstonia.
- Gaofei Jiang
- , Yuling Zhang
- & Zhong Wei
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Article
| Open AccessGene regulation and speciation in a migratory divide between songbirds
Little is known about the genetic basis of many natural behaviours and how they contribute to speciation. Here the authors address this by identifying genes linked to migration of a songbird, investigating how these gene are regulated, and connecting them to potential barriers between species.
- Matthew I. M. Louder
- , Hannah Justen
- & Kira E. Delmore
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Article
| Open AccessLeucine aminopeptidase1 controls egg deposition and hatchability in male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
Aedes aegypti transmit several arboviruses and control of the mosquito populations could be beneficial. Here the authors show that deletion of leucine aminopeptidase1 (LAP1) results in mitochondrial defects and abnormal autophagy in sperm, reducing fertility and fecundity of females. LAP1−/− males show no obvious defects in longevity and mating fitness.
- Xiaomei Sun
- , Xueli Wang
- & Zhen Zou
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Article
| Open AccessDisentangling microbial networks across pelagic zones in the tropical and subtropical global ocean
This study investigates the dynamic associations among microbes in the world’s tropical and subtropical oceans. It reveals that potential interactions vary with ocean depth and location, with most surface associations not persisting in deeper waters. The results contribute to understanding the ocean microbiome in the context of global change.
- Ina M. Deutschmann
- , Erwan Delage
- & Ramiro Logares
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Article
| Open AccessUniversal microbial reworking of dissolved organic matter along environmental gradients
Soils combat climate change by storing carbon but lose considerable amounts of carbon into downstream waters. Here a general process for how microbes transform carbon across soil-to-stream to impact its persistence in the natural environment is demonstrated.
- Erika C. Freeman
- , Erik J. S. Emilson
- & Andrew J. Tanentzap
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Article
| Open AccessWaste milk humification product can be used as a slow release nano-fertilizer
The growth in global milk demand has been accompanied by an increase in waste milk disposal. Here, the authors transform waste milk through humification and incorporate the product into attapulgite creating a nano-fertiliser that benefits for plants growing in pots.
- Yanping Zhu
- , Yuxuan Cao
- & Dongqing Cai
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