Many plants naturalized as aliens abroad have also become more common within their native regions.

Due to anthropogenic pressure some species have declined whereas others have increased within their native ranges. Simultaneously, many species introduced by humans have established self-sustaining populations elsewhere (i.e.

The lab-field continuum in conservation physiology research: leveraging multiple approaches to inform policy and practice.

In the field of conservation physiology, there is often a trade off between conducting research in controlled laboratory settings or in inherently variable field environments. However, this belief sets up a false dichotomy where laboratory experiments are perceived as providing precise, mechanistic understanding with low variability at the cost of environmental realism while field studies are ecologically relevant but criticized for generating inconsistent evidence that is difficult to interpret and replicate. Despite the perceived binary view, these approaches are not in opposition to one another, but rather form a continuum along increasing ecological complexity.

Genetic Adaptation to Brackish Water and Spawning Season in European Cisco.

How species adapt to diverse environmental conditions is essential for understanding evolution and the maintenance of biodiversity. The European cisco (Coregonus albula) is a salmonid that occurs in both fresh and brackish water, and this together with the presence of sympatric spring- and autumn-spawning lacustrine populations provides an opportunity for studying the genetics of adaptation in relation to salinity and timing of reproduction. Here, we present a high-quality reference genome of the European cisco based on PacBio HiFi long read sequencing and HiC-directed scaffolding.

Plants with higher dispersal capabilities follow 'abundant-centre' distributions but such patterns remain rare in animals.

The 'abundant-centre' hypothesis posits that a species' abundance is highest at its range centre and declines towards its range edge. Recently, the hypothesis has been much debated, with supporting empirical evidence remaining limited. Here, we test the hypothesis on 3660 species using 5,703,589 abundance observations.

Cross-taxa sublethal impacts of plant protection products on honeybee in-hive and zebrafish swimming behaviours at environmentally relevant concentrations.

Single and mixture exposure to plant protection products (PPPs) can affect non-target organisms at sublethal concentrations, yet the ecological relevance of behavioural effects remains underexplored. Behavioural disruptions can compromise survival and fitness, with exposure occurring across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here, we assess the behavioural impact of environmentally relevant PPP concentrations on two ecologically and toxicologically important model species: honeybees (Apis mellifera) and zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Small-Scale Stabilizing Effect of Asynchrony in Vital Rate Responses to Climate in an Imperiled Dune Thistle.

Changes in population responses to climate are usually studied at broad spatial grains, such as across species ranges. Only a handful of studies have investigated how small-scale variation, for example driven by soil conditions and microtopography, can mediate the responses of population vital rates to climate. Here, we examine responses of vital rates to climate across five subpopulations occurring in coastal dune locations that range from the foredune to the backdune.

An updated view of metabolic handoffs in microbiomes.

From the human gut to the deep ocean, diverse microbial communities underpin essential ecosystem processes. Limited understanding of the dynamics and interactions that shape these communities, however, constrains efforts to culture, investigate, and harness their potential. Further, these knowledge gaps restrict the ability to predict microbial responses to broader biodiversity declines and global change.

WaveSeekerNet: accurate prediction of influenza A virus subtypes and host source using attention-based deep learning.

Background: Influenza A virus (IAV) poses a significant threat to animal health globally, with its ability to overcome species barriers and cause pandemics. Rapid and accurate IAV subtypes and host source prediction is crucial for effective surveillance and pandemic preparedness. Deep learning has emerged as a powerful tool for analyzing viral genomic sequences, offering new ways to uncover hidden patterns associated with viral characteristics and host adaptation.

Unveiling the Bioactive Potential of the Invasive Jellyfish Through Integrative Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses.

The white-spotted jellyfish, , is an invasive species with significant ecological and economic relevance spreading across various regions. While its ecological impact is well-documented, its molecular and biochemical characteristics remain poorly understood. In this study, we integrate proteomic data generated by LC-MS/MS with publicly available transcriptomic information to characterize , analyzing differential protein expression across three distinct tissues: oral arms, mantle, and gonads.

Species traits and landscape structure can drive scale-dependent propagation of effects in ecosystems.

Species can directly and indirectly affect others across communities and habitats, yet the spatial scale over which such effects spread remains unclear. This uncertainty arises partly because the species traits and landscape structures allowing indirect effects to propagate may differ across scales. Here, we use a topological network metric, communicability, to explore the factors controlling spatial propagation of effects in a large-scale plant-frugivore network projected across the territory of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Decoding the phylogeny of the genus Merodon Meigen (Diptera, Syrphidae): a synergistic approach with molecular and morphological data.

The genus Merodon (Diptera: Syrphidae) is the most species-rich hoverfly genus in Europe. Recent studies have focused on resolving species-level taxonomy, species delimitation, or phenotypic traits analyses, but only a few authors have dealt with its intra-generic phylogenetic relationships. In this study, we compiled a dataset of adult morphological characters capturing the phylogenetically informative characters for the genus Merodon, as well as the most closely related co-tribal taxa.

Uncovering fungal diversity in mangroves: new records, ecological insights, and phylogenetic analysis of from Tarout Island, Saudi Arabia.

This study investigated the diversity and ecological patterns of marine fungi associated with decayed wood in the mangrove ecosystems of Tarout Island, Saudi Arabia. A total of 17 fungal species were isolated from four distinct mangrove stands that varied in vegetation density and environmental characteristics. These included ten teleomorphic ascomycetes and seven anamorphic fungi.

Small net local temporal changes in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic biodiversity across European temperate forests.

We face increasing concerns about how the local diversity of native plant communities responds to various drivers of global change, yet often lack comprehensive studies that integrate several components of diversity and the effects of both local and regional drivers of change. We analyzed changes in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity across 2681 (semi-)permanent temperate forest understory plots surveyed and resurveyed for all vascular plants over intervals of 15-78 yr, spanning 72 regions distributed across Europe. We quantified temporal changes in these diversity indices and assessed their responses to changes in both local drivers (plot-level overstory cover, indicator values for soil nutrients) and regional shifts in macroclimate and nitrogen deposition.

Body size and condition, not allochrony, affect temporal reproductive patterns in a prolonged breeding anuran.

Individual phenological life-history variations in the context of seasonal conditions are well documented in fishes and birds. However, amphibians, a group heavily affected by habitat loss and fragmentation, have received relatively little attention regarding research on life-history adaptations. Here we present 3 years of data on the timing of reproductive activity in a suburban European green toad () population.

Understanding and Predicting Population Response to Anthropogenic Disturbance: Current Approaches and Novel Opportunities.

Effective conservation of biodiversity depends on the successful management of wildlife populations and their habitats. Successful management, in turn, depends on our ability to understand and accurately forecast how populations and communities respond to human-induced changes in their environments. However, quantifying how these stressors impact population dynamics remains challenging.

The tree growth-herbivory relationship depends on functional traits across forest biodiversity experiments.

While studies have demonstrated that higher tree species richness can increase forest productivity, the relationships between tree species richness, tree growth and herbivore damage remain insufficiently explored. Here we investigate these linkages using data from 8,790 trees across 80 species in 9 biodiversity experiments, spanning temperate and subtropical biomes. Despite considerable geographic variation, we reveal an overall positive relationship between tree species richness and insect herbivory, as well as between tree growth and herbivory, at individual, species and community levels.

Evolutionary age correlates with range size across plants and animals.

More than 40 thousand species of plants and animals are facing extinction worldwide. Range size is one of the strongest determinants of extinction risk, but the causes underlying the wide variation in natural range sizes remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how species' age is related to present-day range size for over 26,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, reef fishes, and plants.

A mechanistic statistical approach to infer invasion characteristics of human-dispersed species with complex life cycle.

The rising introduction of invasive species through trade networks threatens biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, we have a limited understanding of how transportation networks determine spatiotemporal patterns of range expansion. This knowledge gap may stem from two reasons.

Metagenomic analysis reveals how multiple stressors disrupt virus-host interactions in multi-trophic freshwater mesocosms.

Virus-host interactions are vital to microbiome ecology and evolution, yet their responses to environmental stressors under global change remain poorly understood. We perform a 10-month outdoor mesocosm experiment simulating multi-trophic freshwater shallow lake ecosystems. Using a fully factorial design comprising eight treatments with six replicates each, we assess the individual and combined effects of climate warming, nutrient loading, and pesticide loading on DNA viral communities and their interactions with microbial hosts.

Hottest year in recorded history compounds global biodiversity risks.

As climate change accelerates, effectively monitoring and managing the growing impacts on biodiversity is an urgent priority. Here, we identify the exposure of species to unprecedented heat to evaluate the potential impact of 2024-the hottest year on record-across >33,000 vertebrate species worldwide. One in six (5,368) species were exposed to unprecedented temperatures across >25% of their range-68% more species than in 2023.

Different, but still the same: integrative taxonomy confirms a new species of Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae, Eresidae) from the South Caucasus.

This study represents the first step toward a systematic revision of the velvet spider genus Walckenaer, 1805 in the Caucasus. Here, sp. nov.

Genomic Landscape of High-Altitude Adaptation in East African Mountain Honey Bees ().

Understanding the evolutionary processes leading to differentiation within species is a central goal in population biology. A key process is local adaptation, for which organisms evolve traits enhancing the survival and reproduction in specific environments. Honey bees () in East Africa are well adapted to highland environments, showing different phenotypes, including behavior, compared to lowland bees.

Adenosine kinase and ADAL coordinate detoxification of modified adenosines to safeguard metabolism.

RNA contains diverse post-transcriptional modifications, and its catabolic breakdown yields numerous modified nucleosides requiring correct processing, but the mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that three RNA-derived modified adenosines, N-methyladenosine (mA), N,N-dimethyladenosine (mA), and N-isopentenyladenosine (iA), are sequentially metabolized into inosine monophosphate (IMP) to mitigate their intrinsic cytotoxicity. After phosphorylation by adenosine kinase (ADK), they undergo deamination by adenosine deaminase-like (ADAL).

Global Diversity Patterns in Anurans Are Determined by Terrestrial and Arboreal Species.

Understanding the mechanisms shaping biodiversity distribution patterns is essential in ecology, and species distributions are closely influenced by environmental factors. Previous studies have often focused on taxonomic levels, potentially overlooking important within-group ecological variations. Anurans, with six distinct ecotypes, each occupying unique habitats, serve as an ideal model to examine how environmental factors shape these ecotype-specific distributions.

Successes and limitations of pretrained YOLO detectors applied to unseen time-lapse images for automated pollinator monitoring.

Pollinating insects provide essential ecosystem services, and using time-lapse photography to automate their observation could improve monitoring efficiency. Computer vision models, trained on clear citizen science photos, can detect insects in similar images with high accuracy, but their performance in images taken using time-lapse photography is unknown. We evaluated the generalisation of three lightweight YOLO detectors (YOLOv5-nano, YOLOv5-small, YOLOv7-tiny), previously trained on citizen science images, for detecting ~ 1,300 flower-visiting arthropod individuals in nearly 24,000 time-lapse images captured with a fixed smartphone setup.