Browse our latest Ecology articles

Application of museomics facilitates characterization of the contribution of historical factors to genetic diversity declines in Numenius shorebirds and highlights that extinction of ecosystem-engineering megafauna may have been detrimental for open-landscape species.

A 2-year field experiment reveals that plant secondary metabolites can be harnessed to increase crop productivity through plant-soil feedbacks under agronomically realistic conditions.

A multiplexed microfluidic device was developed to facilitate high-throughput screening of bacterial chemotaxis on a single chip and demonstrated across a range of microbes, chemostimulants, and chemical gradient conditions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.