Trends in ecology & evolution最新文献

Soil microbes act as below-ground defenders against desertification by several mechanisms, such as rhizosheath formation, necromass accumulation, biological soil crusts, exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, hyphal networks, and calcium carbonate precipitation. Here, we discuss how soil microbes drive ecosystem recovery in drylands, offering promising, nature-based strategies for restoring soils in the face of desertification.

Grassy trees - large forest-adapted monocots such as bamboo, palm, and bananas - combine grass-like rapid growth with tree-like canopy dominance. Their ambiguous status between woody and herbaceous plants has led to research neglect. Recognizing them as a distinct growth form is key to harnessing their potential as nature-based solutions for sustainability.

Biodiversity loss due to agricultural expansion and intensification is well documented. Accordingly, the Global Biodiversity Framework calls for transforming agroecosystems towards sustainable management. Yet, cultivated land remains a blind spot in global, open-access biodiversity data, creating knowledge gaps and reporting biases. Overcoming this requires tailored incentives, data integration, and farmer agency.

The Janzen-Connell hypothesis (JC effect) has been proposed as a mechanism for explaining high tropical tree diversity via negative conspecific density dependence imposed by natural enemies. Seed masting describes the uneven investment in reproduction between years, and could be a mechanism for reducing seed predation by means of predator satiation. JC effects select for wider dispersal kernels, allowing species to escape enemies in space, while the predator-satiation model of seed masting assumes escape from predators in time. Although representing contrasting ecological dynamics, both models are predicated on similar assumptions: that tree recruitment is limited by seed mortality via natural enemies. We suggest that the individual fitness advantages of masting and JC dynamics would be better understood by considering both mechanisms together.

In the context of nature conservation, a nexus can be defined as the interlinkages of biodiversity in protected and conserved areas with food, water, health, or climate. Evidence of nature conservation expansion scenarios suggest that such interlinkages are ubiquitous across management types, realms, and scales. Ignoring these interlinkages, including synergies, co-benefits, leakages, and trade-offs, can reduce the effectiveness and cross-sectoral benefits of future protected and conserved area expansions. Integrated planning that is inclusive of different value and knowledge systems can help to bridge disciplines and mitigate severe trade-offs impacting effectiveness of these areas. To enable appropriate expansion of protected and conserved areas to 30% of land and sea by 2030, identifying and including such interlinkages in spatial planning is essential.

Project Psyche is a transnational initiative to generate and study chromosome-level reference genomes of all ~11 000 species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) found in Europe. Here, we describe the decentralised network of collection and sequencing hubs that has enabled rapid progress, the standardised protocols for sampling and sequencing, and the collaborative framework for data analysis. With over 1000 species already sequenced, Lepidoptera are at the forefront of biodiversity genomics with the most reference genomes of any eukaryotic order. The completed pan-European catalogue of openly accessible lepidopteran genomes will transform our understanding of evolution and ecology, inform conservation, and foster advances in management of pests and invasive species. We highlight research areas that will benefit from this large-scale genome dataset.

Invasive species management traditionally distinguishes states of eradication from suppression but an intermediary 'elimination' also exists. Whereas eradication is removal of both residents and reinvaders, elimination removes residents but non-breeding reinvaders remain. By contrast, suppression is only a reduction in the number of residents and does not distinguish reinvaders.