Browse our latest Ecology articles

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    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Ecology

    Spatial structure favors microbial coexistence except when slower mediator diffusion weakens interactions

    Alexander Lobanov, Samantha Dyckman ... Babak Momeni
    Investigating microbial communities in a spatial environment in silico suggests that spatial structure promotes higher coexistence by allowing spatial self-organization, but can hinder coexistence by weakening interactions mediated through diffusible metabolites.
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous insects

    Cihang Luo, George O Poinar ... Bo Wang
    Sixteen new mermithid nematodes associated with their insect hosts are discovered from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber and they are more abundant in non-holometabolous insect hosts, revealing what appears to be a vanished history of nematodes parasitism.
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Parasitic Relationships: Trapped in time

    Kenneth De Baets, Karina Vanadzina, James Schiffbauer
    Analysis of specimens preserved in amber from the Cretaceous period suggests that nematodes changed their host preference towards insects with a complete metamorphosis more recently.
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    1. Ecology

    Temperature sensitivity of the interspecific interaction strength of coastal marine fish communities

    Masayuki Ushio, Testuya Sado ... Masaki Miya
    Fish environmental DNA remaining in a cup of seawater provides information about interaction strengths among marine fish species in nature, highlighting the potential impact of global climate change on community dynamics and stability.
    1. Ecology

    Flying squirrels use a mortise-tenon structure to fix nuts on understory twigs

    Han Xu, Lian Xia ... Suqin Fang
    Two flying squirrel species chewed grooves into Cyclobalanopsis nuts, and used them to pressure-fit nuts tightly in crotches formed by small twigs on understory plants, in a way similar to a mortise-tenon joint used in architecture and carpentry.
    1. Ecology

    Behavior: Flying squirrels, hidden treasures

    Pizza Ka Yee Chow
    In the rain forests of Hainan, China, two species of squirrel create grooves on the surface of smooth nuts so that they can wedge them in the forks between branches.
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    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Spatiotemporal ecological chaos enables gradual evolutionary diversification without niches or tradeoffs

    Aditya Mahadevan, Michael T Pearce, Daniel S Fisher
    Evolution of multiple closely related strains with host-pathogen-like interactions but only one niche and no tradeoffs, can give rise to a spatiotemporally chaotic ecological state that continually diversifies even with generalist mutations that slow the evolution.
    1. Ecology
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Universal gut microbial relationships in the gut microbiome of wild baboons

    Kimberly E Roche, Johannes R Bjork ... Elizabeth A Archie
    In baboon gut microbiota, most pairwise correlations in bacterial abundances are weak and negative, and bacterial correlation patterns are largely shared across hosts, rather than personalized to each hosts.
    1. Ecology
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Microbiome: Finding common connections

    Ma Francesca M Santiago, Aura Raulo
    Ecological associations among gut bacteria are largely consistent across hosts in a population of wild baboons.
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    1. Ecology

    Divergent functions of two clades of flavodoxin in diatoms mitigate oxidative stress and iron limitation

    Shiri Graff van Creveld, Sacha N Coesel ... E Virginia Armbrust
    Diatoms encode two forms of flavodoxin with divergent functions that mitigate the oxidative stress and iron requirements associated with life in contemporary oxygenated iron-poor oceans.