Displaying all 17 publications

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  1. Darling ES, McClanahan TR, Maina J, Gurney GG, Graham NAJ, Januchowski-Hartley F, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2019 Sep;3(9):1341-1350.
    PMID: 31406279 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0953-8
    Without drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages-the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we compiled coral abundance data from 2,584 Indo-Pacific reefs to evaluate the influence of 21 climate, social and environmental drivers on the ecology of reef coral assemblages. Higher abundances of framework-building corals were typically associated with: weaker thermal disturbances and longer intervals for potential recovery; slower human population growth; reduced access by human settlements and markets; and less nearby agriculture. We therefore propose a framework of three management strategies (protect, recover or transform) by considering: (1) if reefs were above or below a proposed threshold of >10% cover of the coral taxa important for structural complexity and carbonate production; and (2) reef exposure to severe thermal stress during the 2014-2017 global coral bleaching event. Our findings can guide urgent management efforts for coral reefs, by identifying key threats across multiple scales and strategic policy priorities that might sustain a network of functioning reefs in the Indo-Pacific to avoid ecosystem collapse.
  2. Johnson DJ, Needham J, Xu C, Massoud EC, Davies SJ, Anderson-Teixeira KJ, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2018 09;2(9):1436-1442.
    PMID: 30104751 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0626-z
    Survival rates of large trees determine forest biomass dynamics. Survival rates of small trees have been linked to mechanisms that maintain biodiversity across tropical forests. How species survival rates change with size offers insight into the links between biodiversity and ecosystem function across tropical forests. We tested patterns of size-dependent tree survival across the tropics using data from 1,781 species and over 2 million individuals to assess whether tropical forests can be characterized by size-dependent life-history survival strategies. We found that species were classifiable into four 'survival modes' that explain life-history variation that shapes carbon cycling and the relative abundance within forests. Frequently collected functional traits, such as wood density, leaf mass per area and seed mass, were not generally predictive of the survival modes of species. Mean annual temperature and cumulative water deficit predicted the proportion of biomass of survival modes, indicating important links between evolutionary strategies, climate and carbon cycling. The application of survival modes in demographic simulations predicted biomass change across forest sites. Our results reveal globally identifiable size-dependent survival strategies that differ across diverse systems in a consistent way. The abundance of survival modes and interaction with climate ultimately determine forest structure, carbon storage in biomass and future forest trajectories.
  3. Dempsey J, Irvine-Broque A, Bigger P, Christiansen J, Muchhala B, Nelson S, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2022 Feb 18.
    PMID: 35181759 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01704-3
  4. Dempsey J, Irvine-Broque A, Bigger P, Christiansen J, Muchhala B, Nelson S, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2021 Dec 20.
    PMID: 34931053 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01619-5
  5. Russo SE, McMahon SM, Detto M, Ledder G, Wright SJ, Condit RS, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2021 Feb;5(2):174-183.
    PMID: 33199870 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01340-9
    Resource allocation within trees is a zero-sum game. Unavoidable trade-offs dictate that allocation to growth-promoting functions curtails other functions, generating a gradient of investment in growth versus survival along which tree species align, known as the interspecific growth-mortality trade-off. This paradigm is widely accepted but not well established. Using demographic data for 1,111 tree species across ten tropical forests, we tested the generality of the growth-mortality trade-off and evaluated its underlying drivers using two species-specific parameters describing resource allocation strategies: tolerance of resource limitation and responsiveness of allocation to resource access. Globally, a canonical growth-mortality trade-off emerged, but the trade-off was strongly observed only in less disturbance-prone forests, which contained diverse resource allocation strategies. Only half of disturbance-prone forests, which lacked tolerant species, exhibited the trade-off. Supported by a theoretical model, our findings raise questions about whether the growth-mortality trade-off is a universally applicable organizing framework for understanding tropical forest community structure.
  6. Roll U, Feldman A, Novosolov M, Allison A, Bauer AM, Bernard R, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2017 11;1(11):1785.
    PMID: 29046563 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0380-7
    In this Article originally published, owing to a technical error, the author 'Laurent Chirio' was mistakenly designated as a corresponding author in the HTML version, the PDF was correct. This error has now been corrected in the HTML version. Further, in Supplementary Table 3, the authors misspelt the surname of 'Danny Meirte'; this file has now been replaced.
  7. Troell M, Jonell M, Henriksson PJG
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2017 09;1(9):1224-1225.
    PMID: 29046558 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0304-6
  8. Roll U, Feldman A, Novosolov M, Allison A, Bauer AM, Bernard R, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2017 Nov;1(11):1677-1682.
    PMID: 28993667 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0332-2
    The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented the incorporation of reptiles into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation schemes represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation priority scheme identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the world's arid, grassland and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently.
  9. Balvanera P, Pascual U, Diaz S, Dziba L, Richard AP, Subramanian SM
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2017 Jun 22;1:197.
    PMID: 28812588 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0197
  10. O'Brien MJ, Reynolds G, Ong R, Hector A
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2017 Nov;1(11):1643-1648.
    PMID: 28963453 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0326-0
    Occasional periods of drought are typical of most tropical forests, but climate change is increasing drought frequency and intensity in many areas across the globe, threatening the structure and function of these ecosystems. The effects of intermittent drought on tropical tree communities remain poorly understood and the potential impacts of intensified drought under future climatic conditions are even less well known. The response of forests to altered precipitation will be determined by the tolerances of different species to reduced water availability and the interactions among plants that alleviate or exacerbate the effects of drought. Here, we report the response of experimental monocultures and mixtures of tropical trees to simulated drought, which reveals a fundamental shift in the nature of interactions among species. Weaker competition for water in diverse communities allowed seedlings to maintain growth under drought while more intense competition among conspecifics inhibited growth under the same conditions. These results show that reduced competition for water among species in mixtures mediates community resistance to drought. The delayed onset of competition for water among species in more diverse neighbourhoods during drought has potential implications for the coexistence of species in tropical forests and the resilience of these systems to climate change.
  11. Srivathsan A, Ang Y, Heraty JM, Hwang WS, Jusoh WFA, Kutty SN, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2023 Jul;7(7):1012-1021.
    PMID: 37202502 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02066-0
    Most of arthropod biodiversity is unknown to science. Consequently, it has been unclear whether insect communities around the world are dominated by the same or different taxa. This question can be answered through standardized sampling of biodiversity followed by estimation of species diversity and community composition with DNA barcodes. Here this approach is applied to flying insects sampled by 39 Malaise traps placed in five biogeographic regions, eight countries and numerous habitats (>225,000 specimens belonging to >25,000 species in 458 families). We find that 20 insect families (10 belonging to Diptera) account for >50% of local species diversity regardless of clade age, continent, climatic region and habitat type. Consistent differences in family-level dominance explain two-thirds of variation in community composition despite massive levels of species turnover, with most species (>97%) in the top 20 families encountered at a single site only. Alarmingly, the same families that dominate insect diversity are 'dark taxa' in that they suffer from extreme taxonomic neglect, with little signs of increasing activities in recent years. Taxonomic neglect tends to increase with diversity and decrease with body size. Identifying and tackling the diversity of 'dark taxa' with scalable techniques emerge as urgent priorities in biodiversity science.
  12. Sun X, Liu YC, Tiunov MP, Gimranov DO, Zhuang Y, Han Y, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2023 Nov;7(11):1914-1929.
    PMID: 37652999 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02185-8
    The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a charismatic megafauna species that originated and diversified in Asia and probably experienced population contraction and expansion during the Pleistocene, resulting in low genetic diversity of modern tigers. However, little is known about patterns of genomic diversity in ancient populations. Here we generated whole-genome sequences from ancient or historical (100-10,000 yr old) specimens collected across mainland Asia, including a 10,600-yr-old Russian Far East specimen (RUSA21, 8× coverage) plus six ancient mitogenomes, 14 South China tigers (0.1-12×) and three Caspian tigers (4-8×). Admixture analysis showed that RUSA21 clustered within modern Northeast Asian phylogroups and partially derived from an extinct Late Pleistocene lineage. While some of the 8,000-10,000-yr-old Russian Far East mitogenomes are basal to all tigers, one 2,000-yr-old specimen resembles present Amur tigers. Phylogenomic analyses suggested that the Caspian tiger probably dispersed from an ancestral Northeast Asian population and experienced gene flow from southern Bengal tigers. Lastly, genome-wide monophyly supported the South China tiger as a distinct subspecies, albeit with mitochondrial paraphyly, hence resolving its longstanding taxonomic controversy. The distribution of mitochondrial haplogroups corroborated by biogeographical modelling suggested that Southwest China was a Late Pleistocene refugium for a relic basal lineage. As suitable habitat returned, admixture between divergent lineages of South China tigers took place in Eastern China, promoting the evolution of other northern subspecies. Altogether, our analysis of ancient genomes sheds light on the evolutionary history of tigers and supports the existence of nine modern subspecies.
  13. Pawar H, Rymbekova A, Cuadros-Espinoza S, Huang X, de Manuel M, van der Valk T, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2023 Sep;7(9):1503-1514.
    PMID: 37500909 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02145-2
    Archaic admixture has had a substantial impact on human evolution with multiple events across different clades, including from extinct hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans into modern humans. In great apes, archaic admixture has been identified in chimpanzees and bonobos but the possibility of such events has not been explored in other species. Here, we address this question using high-coverage whole-genome sequences from all four extant gorilla subspecies, including six newly sequenced eastern gorillas from previously unsampled geographic regions. Using approximate Bayesian computation with neural networks to model the demographic history of gorillas, we find a signature of admixture from an archaic 'ghost' lineage into the common ancestor of eastern gorillas but not western gorillas. We infer that up to 3% of the genome of these individuals is introgressed from an archaic lineage that diverged more than 3 million years ago from the common ancestor of all extant gorillas. This introgression event took place before the split of mountain and eastern lowland gorillas, probably more than 40 thousand years ago and may have influenced perception of bitter taste in eastern gorillas. When comparing the introgression landscapes of gorillas, humans and bonobos, we find a consistent depletion of introgressed fragments on the X chromosome across these species. However, depletion in protein-coding content is not detectable in eastern gorillas, possibly as a consequence of stronger genetic drift in this species.
  14. Medina-Vega JA, Zuleta D, Aguilar S, Alonso A, Bissiengou P, Brockelman WY, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2024 Jan 10.
    PMID: 38200369 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02298-0
    Mycorrhizae, a form of plant-fungal symbioses, mediate vegetation impacts on ecosystem functioning. Climatic effects on decomposition and soil quality are suggested to drive mycorrhizal distributions, with arbuscular mycorrhizal plants prevailing in low-latitude/high-soil-quality areas and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) plants in high-latitude/low-soil-quality areas. However, these generalizations, based on coarse-resolution data, obscure finer-scale variations and result in high uncertainties in the predicted distributions of mycorrhizal types and their drivers. Using data from 31 lowland tropical forests, both at a coarse scale (mean-plot-level data) and fine scale (20 × 20 metres from a subset of 16 sites), we demonstrate that the distribution and abundance of EcM-associated trees are independent of soil quality. Resource exchange differences among mycorrhizal partners, stemming from diverse evolutionary origins of mycorrhizal fungi, may decouple soil fertility from the advantage provided by mycorrhizal associations. Additionally, distinct historical biogeographies and diversification patterns have led to differences in forest composition and nutrient-acquisition strategies across three major tropical regions. Notably, Africa and Asia's lowland tropical forests have abundant EcM trees, whereas they are relatively scarce in lowland neotropical forests. A greater understanding of the functional biology of mycorrhizal symbiosis is required, especially in the lowland tropics, to overcome biases from assuming similarity to temperate and boreal regions.
  15. Burton AC, Beirne C, Gaynor KM, Sun C, Granados A, Allen ML, et al.
    Nat Ecol Evol, 2024 Mar 18.
    PMID: 38499871 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02363-2
    Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human-wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.
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