Explore the vast range of titles available.

Network-based assessments are important for disentangling complex microbial and microbial–host interactions and can provide the basis for microbial engineering. There is a growing recognition that chemical-mediated interactions are important for the coexistence of microbial species. However, so far, the methods used to infer microbial interactions have been validated with models assuming direct species-species interactions, such as generalized Lotka–Volterra models. Therefore, it is unclear how effective existing approaches are in detecting chemical-mediated interactions. In this paper, we used time series of simulated microbial dynamics to benchmark five major/state-of-the-art methods. We found that only two methods (CCM and LIMITS) were capable of detecting interactions. While LIMITS performed better than CCM, it was less robust to the presence of chemical-mediated interactions, and the presence of trophic competition was essential for the interactions to be detectable. We show that the existence of chemical-mediated interactions among microbial species poses a new challenge to overcome for the development of a network-based understanding of microbiomes and their interactions with hosts and the environment.

Societal Impact Statement A diversity of values is needed to maximize the effectiveness of conservation planning, including policies and programs. The results of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada, highlight the importance of a shift towards recognizing multiple ways of knowing in ecology and conservation. This review aims to provide a baseline of what is known about culturally significant plants in the Great Lakes Region of Eastern North America. The results of this research provide insight into the ways in which ecology has been conducted in the past and the importance of changing the way ecology is conducted in the future. Summary Biocultural conservation theory allows for an examination of complex problems using systems thinking and conserving biological and cultural diversity together. In the Great Lakes Region of Eastern North America, wild medicine plants are an important part of what Anishinaabe people understand as Mini bimaadizi, or the good life, and of aki miijim, or traditional food systems. Given the various threats facing wild plant populations and continued global change, this review aims to investigate what is known about the pollination and breeding systems of culturally significant plants in the Great Lakes Region. The overall goal is to determine what proportion of these plants have had basic ecological studies done and the degree to which culturally significant plants in this region rely on insect pollination. A systematic review of the literature was conducted on breeding systems and pollination of culturally significant plants. Half of all the culturally significant plants included lacked specific information related to reproduction. Most plants that have been studied relied on outcrossing, and the most commonly reported pollinators were in the Apidae family. With the complex interactions between plants and pollinators and many insect pollinators experiencing population declines, it is important to determine the dependence of culturally significant plants on animal pollination. These findings will be relevant to conservation planning and policy in the future. A diversity of values is needed to maximize the effectiveness of conservation planning, including policies and programs. The results of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada, highlight the importance of a shift towards recognizing multiple ways of knowing in ecology and conservation. This review aims to provide a baseline of what is known about culturally significant plants in the Great Lakes Region of Eastern North America. The results of this research provide insight into the ways in which ecology has been conducted in the past and the importance of changing the way ecology is conducted in the future.

Large‐scale abortion of immature fruits is a pervasive phenomenon across seed plants due to maternal physiological decisions associated with matching resources with fruit crop size. Aborted fruits are usually disqualified from studies of both fruit production and seed dispersal. However, a considerable number of developing seeds occur within immature aborted fruits. We evaluated the untested hypotheses that seeds within aborted fruits are viable and that incomplete predation of seeds within aborted fruits by hoarding rodents provides, in addition to seed movement, increased germination and seedling emergence. To this end, we studied the system composed by the Iberian pear Pyrus bourgaeana and several rodent species in Mediterranean Spain. About a third of aborted fruits found beneath tree canopies (n = 2430) were partially eaten by rodents. Using a seed sowing experiment, we revealed that a considerable fraction of seeds from P. bourgaeana aborted fruits are viable, germinating, and emerging seedlings. Paradoxically, however, these seeds are de facto unviable since they are confined within the extremely hard pericarp of aborted fruits, which prevents any seedling emergence and thus any contribution to tree recruitment. We show that only when rodents partially gnaw the pericarp walls of aborted fruits, seeds that escaped from predation have the prospect of emerging and thus potentially contributing to tree regeneration. Thus, in this and probably in many other similar synzoochore systems, rodents act as rescuers of seeds confined within aborted fruits, conferring the plants a largely overlooked benefit that could shape the reproductive strategy of many plant species.

Summary The effects of the present biodiversity crisis have been largely focused on the loss of species. However, a missed component of biodiversity loss that often accompanies or even precedes species disappearance is the extinction of ecological interactions. Here, we propose a novel model that (i) relates the diversity of both species and interactions along a gradient of environmental deterioration and (ii) explores how the rate of loss of ecological functions, and consequently of ecosystem services, can be accelerated or restrained depending on how the rate of species loss covaries with the rate of interactions loss. We find that the loss of species and interactions are decoupled, such that ecological interactions are often lost at a higher rate. This implies that the loss of ecological interactions may occur well before species disappearance, affecting species functionality and ecosystems services at a faster rate than species extinctions. We provide a number of empirical case studies illustrating these points. Our approach emphasizes the importance of focusing on species interactions as the major biodiversity component from which the ‘health’ of ecosystems depends. Lay Summary

Premise of the study: Variation in plant mating systems is a fundamental component of the diversity of floral form and function. Mating systems have a strong influence on the distribution and expression of genetic variation, which in turn can influence the course of mating system evolution. It has long been appreciated, however, that ecological interactions may provide much of the impetus behind these evolutionary changes. Methods: This commentary reviews the Special Section in the American Journal of Botany (vol. 100, issue 6) that features novel research on the role of interactions between plants and their pollinators, seed dispersers, herbivores, and interspecific competitors in the evolution of selfing rates and gender. These studies vary in approach from empirical experiments, to phylogenetic comparisons, to theoretical models, to literature reviews as they each attempt to shed new light on longstanding questions about the selective forces and evolutionary pathways that have led to the diversified means by which plants promote or discourage self-fertilization. Key results: Evidence is provided that indicates that ecological interactions (e.g., herbivory and heterospecific pollen deposition by pollinators) can strongly influence the relative advantages of selfing and outcrossing. Ecological interactions can also influence allocation to sexual functions, which will influence individual and population outcrossing rates and possibly the evolutionary path of gender expression. Conclusions: Mating systems evolution is clearly a multidimensional problem. Research that places the study of mating and sexual systems within a more realistic ecological context will no doubt reveal more complexity as we move toward a better understanding of plant diversity.

Known for centuries, the geographical pattern of increasing biodiversity from the poles to the equator is one of the most pervasive features of life on Earth. A long-standing goal of biogeographers has been to understand the primary factors that generate and maintain high diversity in the tropics. Many 'historical' and 'ecological' hypotheses have been proposed and debated, but there is still little consensus. Recent discussions have centred around two main phenomena: phylogenetic niche conservatism and ecological productivity. These two factors play important roles, but accumulating theoretical and empirical studies suggest that the single most important factor is kinetics: the temperature dependence of ecological and evolutionary rates. The relatively high temperatures in the tropics generate and maintain high diversity because 'the Red Queen runs faster when she is hot'.

Digitonthophagus gazella was deliberately introduced to several American countries to remove bovine manure and control hematophagous flies and gastrointestinal parasites. This species, typically found in open habitats, has opportunistic strategies for resource utilization, high reproductive and dispersal rates, and processes large quantities of cattle dung. As a result, it rapidly colonized the lowlands of the American continent, achieving a wide distribution; and being currently catalogued as an invasive exotic species in several tropical and subtropical countries. Based on research completed and samples taken during six years in three ecological environments (forest, intensive silvopastoral systems, and treeless pastures) in the Cesar River valley, northern Colombia, an analysis is proposed to evaluate whether D. gazella behaves as an invasive or a naturalized species. To assess information about its distribution, food preferences, relationship with native species during temporal succession in resource use, ecological functions related to removing dung and soil perturbation, and risks or benefits this species represents to native dung beetle fauna in the valley were weighed. A classification is presented utilizing conventional criteria. According to our analysis, D. gazella could be considered an introduced, naturalized species with minimal impact in the Cesar River valley since it did not enter the forest, did not generate competition through exclusion with native species, prefers bovine dung, completes ecologically important functions for cattle systems, and has economic benefits due to the reduction of agrochemical use. Further research is suggested to corroborate if these results operate nationwide. Digitonthophagus gazella fue introducida deliberadamente en varios países de América para eliminar el estiércol bovino y controlar moscas hematófagas y parásitos gastrointestinales. Esta especie, normalmente de hábitats abiertos, tiene estrategias oportunistas para la utilización de recursos, altas tasas de reproducción y dispersión, y procesa grandes cantidades de estiércol de ganado. Como resultado, colonizó rápidamente las tierras bajas del continente americano, logrando una amplia distribución. Actualmente es catalogada como una especie exótica invasora. Con base en investigaciones realizadas y muestras tomadas durante seis años en tres ambientes ecológicos (bosque, sistemas silvopastoriles intensivos y pastizales sin árboles) en el valle del río Cesar, norte de Colombia, se propone un análisis para evaluar si D. gazella se comporta como invasora o naturalizada. Se estudiaron las funciones ecológicas relacionadas con la remoción de estiércol y perturbación del suelo y los riesgos o beneficios que esta especie representa para la fauna nativa de escarabajos coprófagos en el valle, se evaluó su distribución, preferencias alimentarias y relación con especies nativas durante la sucesión temporal en el uso de recursos. De acuerdo con nuestro análisis, usando criterios convencionales, D. gazella podría considerarse una especie introducida, naturalizada y con mínimo impacto en la zona, ya que no ingresa al bosque, no genera competencia por exclusión con especies nativas, tiene preferencia por el estiércol bovino, completa funciones ecológicas en los sistemas ganaderos, con beneficios económicos debido a la reducción del uso de agroquímicos. Se sugiere mayor investigación para corroborar si estos resultados operan a nivel nacional.

Observational studies reveal substantial variability in microbiome composition across individuals. Targeted studies in gnotobiotic animals underscore this variability by showing that some bacterial strains colonize deterministically, while others colonize stochastically. While some of this variability can be explained by external factors like environmental, dietary, and genetic differences between individuals, in this paper we show that for the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, interactions between bacteria can affect the microbiome assembly process, contributing to a baseline level of microbiome variability even among isogenic organisms that are identically reared, housed, and fed. In germfree flies fed known combinations of bacterial species, we find that some species colonize more frequently than others even when fed at the same high concentration. We develop an ecological technique that infers the presence of interactions between bacterial species based on their colonization odds in different contexts, requiring only presence/absence data from two-species experiments. We use a progressive sequence of probabilistic models, in which the colonization of each bacterial species is treated as an independent stochastic process, to reproduce the empirical distributions of colonization outcomes across experiments. We find that incorporating context-dependent interactions substantially improves the performance of the models. Stochastic, context-dependent microbiome assembly underlies clinical therapies like fecal microbiota transplantation and probiotic administration and should inform the design of synthetic fecal transplants and dosing regimes.

My aim is to conceptualize power using social science theory and to demonstrate why and how the concept of power can complement resilience studies and other analyses of social-ecological interaction. Social power as a scientific concept refers to the ability to influence both conduct and context. These two dimensions of power (conduct and context) can be observed by differentiating between various sources of power, including, for example, technology or mental power. The relevance of the conceptualization of power presented here is illustrated with the example of fire as a source of social-ecological power. I conclude by discussing how attention to power can help to address issues of social justice and responsibility in social-ecological interactions.

• Premise of the study: While we have a good understanding of how co-flowering plants interact via pollinator foraging, we still know very little about how plants interact via heterospecific pollen (HP) receipt. To fill this gap, we sought to illuminate the extent of HP receipt and quantitatively evaluate the fitness consequences of HP receipt. We consider plant traits that could mediate the fitness costs of HP receipt in an effort to better understand the potential consequences of pollinator sharing in natural communities.• Methods: We survey the literature for occurrence of HP receipt and assess variation in the fitness effects of a standard HP treatment. We develop a conceptual framework for understanding variation in fitness consequences of HP receipt.• Key results: We find evidence for variation in HP receipt and its costs. Our framework predicts that certain traits (self-incompatibility, small, highly aperaturate or allelopathic pollen) will lead to detrimental HP donors, whereas others (self-compatibility, small or wet stigmas, short styles) will lead to vulnerable HP recipients. We also predict that detrimental effects of HP receipt will increase with decreasing phylogenetic distance between donor and recipient.• Conclusions: Our framework can guide much needed additional work so that we can evaluate whether and which plant traits contribute to the variation in the effects of HP receipt. This will be a step toward predicting the consequences of HP receipt in natural communities, and ultimately transform our understanding of the role of postpollination interactions in floral trait evolution and pollinator sharing.