Pub Date : 2025-12-12DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02919-w
Ekaterina Osipova, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Claire N. Spottiswoode, Jess Lund, Jeffrey M. DaCosta, Mark E. Hauber, Wesley C. Warren, Michael D. Sorenson, Timothy B. Sackton
Parental care evolved as a strategy to enhance offspring survival at the cost of reduced adult survival and fecundity. While 99% of bird species provide parental care, obligate brood parasites circumvent this trade-off by exploiting the parental behaviours of other species. This radical life-history shift occurred independently seven times in birds, offering an outstanding opportunity to test for convergent adaptation. To investigate genomic adaptations underlying this transition, we analyse population resequencing data from five brood-parasitic species across three independent origins of brood parasitism—three parasitic finches, a honeyguide and a cowbird—alongside related non-parasitic outgroups. Using the McDonald–Kreitman framework, we find evidence for adaptation in genes involved in sperm function in multiple parasitic clades, but not in the matched, non-parasitic outgroups, consistent with evidence for increased male–male competition in parasitic lineages following the loss of parental care. We also detect selective sweeps near genes associated with nervous system development in parasitic lineages, perhaps associated with improved spatial cognition that aids brood parasites in locating and monitoring host nests. Finally, we detect more selective sweeps in the genomes of host specialist brood parasites as compared to non-parasitic outgroups, perhaps reflecting ongoing host–parasite coevolutionary arms races. Population genetics analysis in a phylogenetic framework shows convergent evolution in the genomes of five brood-parasitic species, including selection on genes involved in spermatogenesis, sperm function and nervous system development.
{"title":"Comparative population genomics reveals convergent adaptation across independent origins of avian obligate brood parasitism","authors":"Ekaterina Osipova, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Claire N. Spottiswoode, Jess Lund, Jeffrey M. DaCosta, Mark E. Hauber, Wesley C. Warren, Michael D. Sorenson, Timothy B. Sackton","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02919-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02919-w","url":null,"abstract":"Parental care evolved as a strategy to enhance offspring survival at the cost of reduced adult survival and fecundity. While 99% of bird species provide parental care, obligate brood parasites circumvent this trade-off by exploiting the parental behaviours of other species. This radical life-history shift occurred independently seven times in birds, offering an outstanding opportunity to test for convergent adaptation. To investigate genomic adaptations underlying this transition, we analyse population resequencing data from five brood-parasitic species across three independent origins of brood parasitism—three parasitic finches, a honeyguide and a cowbird—alongside related non-parasitic outgroups. Using the McDonald–Kreitman framework, we find evidence for adaptation in genes involved in sperm function in multiple parasitic clades, but not in the matched, non-parasitic outgroups, consistent with evidence for increased male–male competition in parasitic lineages following the loss of parental care. We also detect selective sweeps near genes associated with nervous system development in parasitic lineages, perhaps associated with improved spatial cognition that aids brood parasites in locating and monitoring host nests. Finally, we detect more selective sweeps in the genomes of host specialist brood parasites as compared to non-parasitic outgroups, perhaps reflecting ongoing host–parasite coevolutionary arms races. Population genetics analysis in a phylogenetic framework shows convergent evolution in the genomes of five brood-parasitic species, including selection on genes involved in spermatogenesis, sperm function and nervous system development.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"128-139"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145743154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z
Anina Knauer, Subodh Adhikari, Georg K. S. Andersson, Emilie Andrieu, András Báldi, Péter Batáry, Jordi Bosch, Sara L. Bushmann, Domingo Cano, Romain Carrié, Bryan N. Danforth, Francis A. Drummond, Diane Esquerré, Daniel García, Claudio Gratton, Peter A. Hambäck, Anne-Kathrin Happe, Veronica Hederström, Andrea Holzschuh, Philippe Jeanneret, Riina Kaasik, Temitope Kehinde, Jessica Knapp, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, Claire Kremen, Ilona Leyer, Gisela Lüscher, Rachel Mallinger, Riho Marja, Carlos Martínez-Núñez, Fabian D. Menalled, Leithen K. M’Gonigle, Marcos Miñarro, Anne-Christine Mupepele, Charlie C. Nicholson, Mark Otieno, Annie Ouin, Mia G. Park, Maria-Helena Pereira-Peixoto, Antonio J. Pérez, Simon G. Potts, Annette Reineke, Pedro J. Rey, Taylor H. Ricketts, Justine Rivers-Moore, Stuart Roberts, Laura Roquer-Beni, Maj Rundlöf, Ulrika Samnegård, Michael J. Samways, Janine M. Schwarz, Oliver Schweiger, Henrik G. Smith, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Louis Sutter, Giovanni Tamburini, Deniz Uzman, Eve Veromann, Aude Vialatte, Eneli Viik, Mark J. F. Brown, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Matthias Albrecht
Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields. The authors synthesize bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents, finding that local pesticide hazards and decreasing adjacent semi-natural habitats both negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides also reduced functional diversity.
{"title":"Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields","authors":"Anina Knauer, Subodh Adhikari, Georg K. S. Andersson, Emilie Andrieu, András Báldi, Péter Batáry, Jordi Bosch, Sara L. Bushmann, Domingo Cano, Romain Carrié, Bryan N. Danforth, Francis A. Drummond, Diane Esquerré, Daniel García, Claudio Gratton, Peter A. Hambäck, Anne-Kathrin Happe, Veronica Hederström, Andrea Holzschuh, Philippe Jeanneret, Riina Kaasik, Temitope Kehinde, Jessica Knapp, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, Claire Kremen, Ilona Leyer, Gisela Lüscher, Rachel Mallinger, Riho Marja, Carlos Martínez-Núñez, Fabian D. Menalled, Leithen K. M’Gonigle, Marcos Miñarro, Anne-Christine Mupepele, Charlie C. Nicholson, Mark Otieno, Annie Ouin, Mia G. Park, Maria-Helena Pereira-Peixoto, Antonio J. Pérez, Simon G. Potts, Annette Reineke, Pedro J. Rey, Taylor H. Ricketts, Justine Rivers-Moore, Stuart Roberts, Laura Roquer-Beni, Maj Rundlöf, Ulrika Samnegård, Michael J. Samways, Janine M. Schwarz, Oliver Schweiger, Henrik G. Smith, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Louis Sutter, Giovanni Tamburini, Deniz Uzman, Eve Veromann, Aude Vialatte, Eneli Viik, Mark J. F. Brown, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Matthias Albrecht","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02924-z","url":null,"abstract":"Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields. The authors synthesize bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents, finding that local pesticide hazards and decreasing adjacent semi-natural habitats both negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides also reduced functional diversity.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"95-104"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02924-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02939-6
Matthew E. Fagan, Naomi B. Schwartz, Ruth S. DeFries
In this age of abundant remote-sensing data, global datasets are increasingly relied upon to analyse the planet at unprecedented scale and resolution. We offer three considerations on uncertainties and potential misapplications of global datasets, to ensure results appropriate for decision making.
{"title":"The responsible use of global remote-sensing datasets","authors":"Matthew E. Fagan, Naomi B. Schwartz, Ruth S. DeFries","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02939-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02939-6","url":null,"abstract":"In this age of abundant remote-sensing data, global datasets are increasingly relied upon to analyse the planet at unprecedented scale and resolution. We offer three considerations on uncertainties and potential misapplications of global datasets, to ensure results appropriate for decision making.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 2","pages":"160-163"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02917-y
Andrew J. Abraham, Gareth P. Hempson, Elizabeth le Roux, Celesté Maré, Lyla L. Taylor, Andrea B. Webster, Ethan S. Duvall, Tomos Prys-Jones, John Coppock, Chase Ridenour, Pieter de Jager, David Augustine, Colin A. Chapman, Peter J. Fashing, Michael B. J. Harfoot, Ricardo M. Holdo, J. Grant C. Hopcraft, Caley Johnson, Frank van Langevelde, Yadvinder Malhi, Alexandra Morel, Nga Nguyen, Norman Owen-Smith, Arjun B. Potter, Herbert H. T. Prins, Jessica M. Rothman, Larissa Swedell, Jens-Christian Svenning, Eleanor R. Thomson, Fons van der Plas, Michiel P. Veldhuis, Robert M. Pringle, Marcus Clauss, Christopher E. Doughty
Sodium (Na) is an essential nutrient for animals, but not for most plants. Consequently, herbivores may confront a mismatch between forage availability and metabolic requirement. Recent work suggests that larger-bodied mammals may be particularly susceptible to Na deficits, yet it is unknown whether Na availability constrains the density or distribution of large herbivores at broad scales. Here we show that plant-Na availability varies >1,000-fold across sub-Saharan Africa and helps explain continent-scale patterns of large-herbivore abundance. We combined field data with machine-learning approaches to generate high-resolution maps of plant Na, which revealed multi-scale gradients arising from sea-salt deposition, hydrology, soil chemistry and plant traits. Faecal Na concentration was positively correlated with modelled dietary Na, supporting the prediction that variation in plant Na is a major determinant of herbivore Na intake. Incorporating plant-Na availability improved model predictions of large-herbivore population density, especially for megaherbivore species, which are depressed in very-low-Na regions (<100 mg kg−1), consistent with Na limitation. Our study offers an explanation for the scarcity of megaherbivores in parts of Central and West Africa, which has major ecological ramifications given the strong influence of large herbivores on ecosystem functioning and the profound human-induced changes to Na availability in Africa and beyond. Combining high-resolution mapping of foliar and herbivore faecal sodium concentrations across Africa, the authors show that plant-derived sodium availability constrains megaherbivore densities at a continental scale.
钠（Na）是动物必需的营养物质，但对大多数植物却不是。因此，草食动物可能面临饲料供应和代谢需求之间的不匹配。最近的研究表明，体型较大的哺乳动物可能特别容易受到钠缺乏的影响，但目前尚不清楚钠的可用性是否会在大范围内限制大型食草动物的密度或分布。在撒哈拉以南非洲地区，植物na的可用性变化了1000倍，这有助于解释大型食草动物丰度的大陆尺度模式。我们将野外数据与机器学习方法相结合，生成了植物Na的高分辨率地图，揭示了由海盐沉积、水文、土壤化学和植物性状引起的多尺度梯度。粪便中Na浓度与模拟的饲粮Na呈正相关，支持植物Na变化是草食性Na摄入量主要决定因素的预测。结合植物钠的有效性，改进了大型食草动物种群密度的模型预测，特别是对于大型食草动物物种，它们在极低钠区域（<100 mg kg - 1）受到抑制，符合钠的限制。我们的研究为中非和西非部分地区大型食草动物的稀缺提供了一个解释，鉴于大型食草动物对生态系统功能的强烈影响以及非洲及其他地区人类引起的Na可用性的深刻变化，这一现象具有重大的生态后果。
{"title":"Sodium constraints on megaherbivore communities in Africa","authors":"Andrew J. Abraham, Gareth P. Hempson, Elizabeth le Roux, Celesté Maré, Lyla L. Taylor, Andrea B. Webster, Ethan S. Duvall, Tomos Prys-Jones, John Coppock, Chase Ridenour, Pieter de Jager, David Augustine, Colin A. Chapman, Peter J. Fashing, Michael B. J. Harfoot, Ricardo M. Holdo, J. Grant C. Hopcraft, Caley Johnson, Frank van Langevelde, Yadvinder Malhi, Alexandra Morel, Nga Nguyen, Norman Owen-Smith, Arjun B. Potter, Herbert H. T. Prins, Jessica M. Rothman, Larissa Swedell, Jens-Christian Svenning, Eleanor R. Thomson, Fons van der Plas, Michiel P. Veldhuis, Robert M. Pringle, Marcus Clauss, Christopher E. Doughty","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02917-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02917-y","url":null,"abstract":"Sodium (Na) is an essential nutrient for animals, but not for most plants. Consequently, herbivores may confront a mismatch between forage availability and metabolic requirement. Recent work suggests that larger-bodied mammals may be particularly susceptible to Na deficits, yet it is unknown whether Na availability constrains the density or distribution of large herbivores at broad scales. Here we show that plant-Na availability varies >1,000-fold across sub-Saharan Africa and helps explain continent-scale patterns of large-herbivore abundance. We combined field data with machine-learning approaches to generate high-resolution maps of plant Na, which revealed multi-scale gradients arising from sea-salt deposition, hydrology, soil chemistry and plant traits. Faecal Na concentration was positively correlated with modelled dietary Na, supporting the prediction that variation in plant Na is a major determinant of herbivore Na intake. Incorporating plant-Na availability improved model predictions of large-herbivore population density, especially for megaherbivore species, which are depressed in very-low-Na regions (<100 mg kg−1), consistent with Na limitation. Our study offers an explanation for the scarcity of megaherbivores in parts of Central and West Africa, which has major ecological ramifications given the strong influence of large herbivores on ecosystem functioning and the profound human-induced changes to Na availability in Africa and beyond. Combining high-resolution mapping of foliar and herbivore faecal sodium concentrations across Africa, the authors show that plant-derived sodium availability constrains megaherbivore densities at a continental scale.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"105-116"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02946-7
Ellen A. R. Welti
A high-resolution map of plant sodium concentrations across sub-Saharan Africa reveals that the distribution of large mammalian herbivores aligns with a diet of modest salt intake, with higher herbivore densities in habitats with intermediate concentrations of foliar sodium.
{"title":"A pinch of salt works for megaherbivores","authors":"Ellen A. R. Welti","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02946-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02946-7","url":null,"abstract":"A high-resolution map of plant sodium concentrations across sub-Saharan Africa reveals that the distribution of large mammalian herbivores aligns with a diet of modest salt intake, with higher herbivore densities in habitats with intermediate concentrations of foliar sodium.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"18-19"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145710807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02926-x
Alexander J. Robertson, Benjamin Kerr, Alison F. Feder
{"title":"Intracellular interactions shape antiviral resistance outcomes in poliovirus via eco-evolutionary feedback","authors":"Alexander J. Robertson, Benjamin Kerr, Alison F. Feder","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02926-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02926-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02911-4
Eva C. D. Stewart, Helena Wiklund, Lenka Neal, Guadalupe Bribiesca-Contreras, Regan Drennan, Corie M. B. Boolukos, Lucas D. King, Muriel Rabone, Georgina Valls Domedel, Amanda Serpell-Stevens, Maria B. Arias, Thomas G. Dahlgren, Tammy Horton, Adrian G. Glover
In 2022 a large-scale test of a commercial deep-sea mining machine was undertaken on the abyssal plain of the eastern Pacific Ocean at a depth of 4,280 m, recovering over 3,000 t of polymetallic nodules. Here, using a quantitative species-level sediment-dwelling macrofaunal dataset, we investigated spatio-temporal variation in faunal abundance and biodiversity for 2 years before and 2 months after test mining. This allowed for the separation of direct mining impacts from natural background variation, which we found to be significant over the 2-year sampling period. Macrofaunal density decreased by 37% directly within the mining tracks, alongside a 32% reduction in species richness, and significantly increased community multivariate dispersion. While species richness and diversity indices within the tracks were reduced compared with controls, diversity was not impacted when measured by sample-size independent measures of accumulation. We found no evidence for change in faunal abundance in an area affected by sediment plumes from the test mining; however, species dominance relationships were altered in these communities reducing their overall biodiversity. These results provide critical data on the effective design of abyssal baseline and impact surveys and highlight the value of integrated species-level taxonomic work in assessing the risks of biodiversity loss. A species-level dataset of sediment-dwelling macrofauna, sampled 2 years before and 2 months after a test of a commercial deep-sea mining machine, reveals losses of macrofaunal density and species richness within the machine’s tracks and community-level effects in both the tracks and an area impacted by sediment plumes.
{"title":"Impacts of an industrial deep-sea mining trial on macrofaunal biodiversity","authors":"Eva C. D. Stewart, Helena Wiklund, Lenka Neal, Guadalupe Bribiesca-Contreras, Regan Drennan, Corie M. B. Boolukos, Lucas D. King, Muriel Rabone, Georgina Valls Domedel, Amanda Serpell-Stevens, Maria B. Arias, Thomas G. Dahlgren, Tammy Horton, Adrian G. Glover","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02911-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02911-4","url":null,"abstract":"In 2022 a large-scale test of a commercial deep-sea mining machine was undertaken on the abyssal plain of the eastern Pacific Ocean at a depth of 4,280 m, recovering over 3,000 t of polymetallic nodules. Here, using a quantitative species-level sediment-dwelling macrofaunal dataset, we investigated spatio-temporal variation in faunal abundance and biodiversity for 2 years before and 2 months after test mining. This allowed for the separation of direct mining impacts from natural background variation, which we found to be significant over the 2-year sampling period. Macrofaunal density decreased by 37% directly within the mining tracks, alongside a 32% reduction in species richness, and significantly increased community multivariate dispersion. While species richness and diversity indices within the tracks were reduced compared with controls, diversity was not impacted when measured by sample-size independent measures of accumulation. We found no evidence for change in faunal abundance in an area affected by sediment plumes from the test mining; however, species dominance relationships were altered in these communities reducing their overall biodiversity. These results provide critical data on the effective design of abyssal baseline and impact surveys and highlight the value of integrated species-level taxonomic work in assessing the risks of biodiversity loss. A species-level dataset of sediment-dwelling macrofauna, sampled 2 years before and 2 months after a test of a commercial deep-sea mining machine, reveals losses of macrofaunal density and species richness within the machine’s tracks and community-level effects in both the tracks and an area impacted by sediment plumes.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 2","pages":"318-329"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02911-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02913-2
Wenmin Zhang, Martin Brandt, Chi Xu, Xiaowei Tong, Yanbiao Xi, Zhongxiang Fang, Rasmus Fensholt
Canopy height is an important aspect of forest structure and functioning. Although water availability is important for canopy height growth, the climatic niche for tall trees remains poorly understood. Here we use global spaceborne lidar-derived canopy height to study its dependence on climate variables. We find that vapour pressure deficit (VPD) strongly controls geographical patterns of canopy height, observing a negative association also in tropical regions where water limitations are modest. Taller trees are prevalent in humid tropical regions, but canopy height decreases sharply as mean annual VPD surpasses 0.68 kPa. By 2100, projected increases in VPD under a warming climate could enhance limitations to canopy height growth, resulting in height losses in 87% of the humid tropical regions. Conversely, we project a widespread increase in canopy height across drylands, linked primarily to changing precipitation regimes. These results suggest that limitations on height growth driven by shifts in atmospheric dryness could lead to reduced future forest carbon sequestration. Rising atmospheric aridity may be an important driver of tree growth. Here the authors present analyse the global relationship between tree canopy height and vapour pressure deficit, and its potential shifts under future climate change.
{"title":"Global dependency of canopy height on vapour pressure deficit and its projections under climate change","authors":"Wenmin Zhang, Martin Brandt, Chi Xu, Xiaowei Tong, Yanbiao Xi, Zhongxiang Fang, Rasmus Fensholt","doi":"10.1038/s41559-025-02913-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-025-02913-2","url":null,"abstract":"Canopy height is an important aspect of forest structure and functioning. Although water availability is important for canopy height growth, the climatic niche for tall trees remains poorly understood. Here we use global spaceborne lidar-derived canopy height to study its dependence on climate variables. We find that vapour pressure deficit (VPD) strongly controls geographical patterns of canopy height, observing a negative association also in tropical regions where water limitations are modest. Taller trees are prevalent in humid tropical regions, but canopy height decreases sharply as mean annual VPD surpasses 0.68 kPa. By 2100, projected increases in VPD under a warming climate could enhance limitations to canopy height growth, resulting in height losses in 87% of the humid tropical regions. Conversely, we project a widespread increase in canopy height across drylands, linked primarily to changing precipitation regimes. These results suggest that limitations on height growth driven by shifts in atmospheric dryness could lead to reduced future forest carbon sequestration. Rising atmospheric aridity may be an important driver of tree growth. Here the authors present analyse the global relationship between tree canopy height and vapour pressure deficit, and its potential shifts under future climate change.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"10 1","pages":"59-69"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02909-y
Benjamin Wildermuth, Maximilian Bröcher, Emma Ladouceur, Sebastian T. Meyer, Holger Schielzeth, Michael Staab, Rafael Achury, Nico Blüthgen, Lionel Hertzog, Jes Hines, Christiane Roscher, Oliver Schweiger, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Anne Ebeling
Recent declines in arthropod diversity, abundance and biomass are central to the global biodiversity crisis. Yet, we lack a mechanistic understanding of the respective contributions of species richness, species identity and abundance to overall biomass change, and how the environment filters these processes. Synthesizing 11 years of data from a biodiversity experiment and from farmed grasslands in central Europe across a gradient of plant species richness and land-use intensity, we show that local arthropod biomass declines were predominantly (>90%) linked to species richness losses. Abundance declines among persisting species accounted for only 5–8% of lost biomass. The role of species identity depended on the environment and diminished over time: especially under high plant diversity and low land-use intensity, arthropod species with both below-average total biomass and above-average individual biomass (large, rare species) contributed disproportionately to species turnover—but this was only detectable in early years when the communities were still relatively abundant. We conclude that arthropod communities are currently homogenizing towards few common species of similar biomass, probably reducing their adaptability to future environmental change. Increasing the diversity and reducing the land-use intensity of grasslands may mitigate ongoing community simplification and loss of arthropod diversity and functioning. Insects are declining in many regions. Here the authors show that arthropod biomass losses in Jena Experiment and Biodiversity Exploratories time series are driven more by species loss than by species identity and abundance declines, and are mitigated by high plant diversity and low land-use intensity.
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