Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Disability in ecology and evolution In this TrendsTalk series 'Disability in ecology and evolution' in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, we will be hearing from people about their experiences being disabled in ecology and evolution. We are asking ecologists and evolutionary biologists with disabilities what the community could do to make our field more inclusive – these changes can be very practical things (e.g., large fonts), they could be institutional, or involve people’s attitudes and beliefs. We hope you enjoy the series.

Online now: Disability in ecology and evolution

Soil microbes: below-ground defenders against desertification Soil microbes act as below-ground defenders against desertification by several mechanisms, such as rhizosheath formation, necromass accumulation, biological soil crusts, exopolysaccharide (EPS) produc...

Soil microbes: below-ground defenders against desertification

@cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social Forum by Ademir Araujo et al

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Soil microbes: below-ground defenders against desertification 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.

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Beyond mutualism: the nature of domesticator–domesticate interactions The literature on domestication commonly calls the association between human domesticators and their plant and animal domesticates mutualistic, yet this designation is rarely examined critically. Here, we assess its validity based on the long-accepted ecological definition of mutualism and current evidence for origins, subsequent evolution, and present features of domesticator–domesticate interactions. We argue that it is difficult to wholly align these associations with standard concepts of mutualism. Instead, domesticator–domesticate interactions vary across domestication pathways and have changed throughout domestication timelines, spanning antagonism to commensalism to mutualism. We argue that the later stages of domestication in some intensively domesticated species form exploitative rather than mutualistic interactions. Moving away from conceptualizing domestication as mutualistic raises new questions regarding its ecology and evolution.

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Cell size matters: a unifying theory across the tree of life Cell size shapes how organisms interact with their environment, yet our understanding of these effects remains fragmented. We synthesise these effects into a Theory of Optimal Cell Size (TOCS), predicting that the size of single-cell organisms, as well as the number and size of cells in multicellular organisms, is subject to strong selection. At the heart of TOCS lies a trade-off between power and energy conservation: cell size acts as a ‘double-edged sword’, influencing both resource acquisition and maintenance costs. Major evolutionary transitions across the tree of life are connected with innovations in cellular organisation. A unified framework for cell size adaptation is essential for revealing the fundamental principles governing the ecology and evolution of life.

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Expanding the social dimensions of conservation translocations Human or ‘social’ dimensions are increasingly prominent in the conservation translocation literature yet in practice they tend to be infrequently or narrowly applied. To assist biophysical scientists and practitioners to act upon social dimensions, we distinguish four ways of thinking about the social dynamics of translocations: identified stakeholders, processes of decision-making, visions of nature, and values in science. We use three case studies to show how working through these four social dimensions together can help to illuminate the multiple meanings and effects of translocations. We discuss how biophysical scientists and practitioners can take responsibility for each social dimension and thus make better choices for people and nature.

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Quality, quantity, and the adaptive function of social relationships Affiliative social relationships have clear links to fitness in many species, yet exactly why that is the case remains elusive. We unify theory from socioecology and network science to set forth testable predictions of how individuals should invest in their social relationships given the relative benefits of different social strategies across environmental contexts. We propose that relationship quality provides access to social support, which can help animals faced with local pressures such as contest competition, while relationship quantity provides access to social tolerance, which can help with global pressures such as predation. The Adaptive Relationships Framework sets the foundation for the systematic study of how social and ecological pressures drive adaptive variation in the quality and quantity of social relationships.

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Online now: Unveiling East Asian ancestry through Middle Neolithic genomes

🚨 ‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Honored to be among the long author list of this new paper out now in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social that looks to bridge the ecosystem engineering and paleontological literature.

IBES Assistant Professor @danibarra.bsky.social is co-author of a recent paper in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social, which provides a new framework for examining how organisms have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale across deep time. Read more from @unlincoln.bsky.social ⤵️

Must read out this week…

Disability in ecology and evolution In this TrendsTalk series, ‘Disability in ecology and evolution,’ in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, we will be hearing from people about their experiences being disabled in ecology and evolution. We...

Happy to share that @taorminalepore.bsky.social and I are featured in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social's continuing series sharing disabled scientists in ecology and evolution spaces! www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

How human biases shape the study of animal behavior – and the criticisms thereof Science is a human activity, and humans are biased. When we study biology, we do not leave our cultural values at home. Instead, we allow them to color the way we see the world. The Western tradition of separating humans from nature, for example, has long blinded scientists to the abilities of animals. It took scholars taught in Shintoism and Buddhism to discover that non-human animals have culture and medicine [1,2].

Online now: How human biases shape the study of animal behavior – and the criticisms thereof

#ERGAReads | A new statistic (IDrisk) to quantify how long runs of homozygosity (ROHs) and heterozygosity in non-ROH regions can be used to predict the risk of inbreeding depression in a population.
🔗 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

#conservation #genomics #inbreeding @sandiegozoo.bsky.social

‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. However, no conceptual framework exists for studying the rise of ecosystem engineering in deep time, requiring us to consider effects that fall outside the scope of traditional definitions. Here, we present a new framework applicable to both modern and ancient engineering-type effects. We propose a new term – ‘Earth system engineering’ – to describe biological processes that alter the structure and function of planetary spheres, and which combines core tenets of ecosystem engineering, niche construction, and legacy effects. We illustrate this framework using the fossil record, and show how it can be applied across the tree of life, and throughout Earth history.

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'Venom' – a manipulative weapon for overcoming the victim’s protective barriers This letter is in response to the article 'What is animal venom? Rethinking a manipulative weapon' by Jenner, Casewell, and Undheim (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2025.05.009).

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Invasive species eradication standards 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.

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I've enjoyed these accounts by #disabled ecologists and evolutionary biologists of their experiences and advice on improving accessibility and inclusion for folks #disabledinSTEM. 🧪
🧵, some favorite quotes:

Animal niches in the airspace For flying animals, including many birds, bats, and insects, the air is a crucial arena for a range of behaviors. Technological advances, such as year-round tracking of flight altitudes and expanded use of radar, increasingly show how flying animals use the aerial habitat. This enables us to answer questions about the environmental patterns and ecological processes that shape aerial niches, including energetics, biotic interactions, and risk due to growing anthropogenic conflicts. In this review, we identify environmental conditions and biological interactions influencing where animals occur in the airspace throughout their life cycles. We outline an ecological framework to advance understanding of how different properties of the airspace shape fundamental aerial habitat niches and how biotic interactions influence the realized niches.

Online now: Animal niches in the airspace

Disability in ecology and evolution In this TrendsTalk series, ‘Disability in ecology and evolution,’ in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, we will be hearing from people about their experiences being disabled in ecology and evolution. We are asking ecologists and evolutionary biologists with disabilities what the community could do to make our field more inclusive – these changes can be very practical things (e.g., large fonts), they could be institutional, or they could involve people’s attitudes and beliefs. We hope you enjoy the series.

Online now: Disability in ecology and evolution

Conservation needs curiosity, innovation and complementarity: reply to Sugai and Costa-Pereira Sugai & Costa-Pereira [1] (hereafter ‘S&CP’) highlight that analytical approaches lag behind the vast datasets generated by new biodiversity monitoring technologies. While we agree on this challenge, we diverge in how to resolve it. First, S&CP fundamentally misinterpret our stance [2] by assuming that we advocate ‘shifting the focus from species to soundscapes’ and ‘eliminating the need for species identification’ [1] – we do not. Second, we question the selective, species-centric alternative offered by S&CP as the sole insight soundscapes can offer for understanding hyperdiverse ecosystems and supporting conservation.

Online now: Conservation needs curiosity, innovation and complementarity: reply to Sugai and Costa-Pereira

Applying complementarity in ecological restoration Climate change and biodiversity loss decrease ecosystem functioning and compromise the delivery of nature’s contributions to people. Restoration may help address these global challenges, but systems are unique and goals diverse. We review how translating complementarity theory into restoration practice in terrestrial, coastal, and wetland ecosystems can help to meet functional restoration goals. Using the mechanisms that drive complementarity – resource partitioning, abiotic facilitation, and biotic feedbacks – can improve restoration outcomes. These mechanisms can increase functioning by guiding site preparation and species selection, enhancing establishment, and limiting dominant species. We propose a decision tool to match mechanisms with suitable contexts. Degraded ecosystems offer unique opportunities to intentionally reintroduce these processes and observe how they rebuild complexity and function.

Online now: Applying complementarity in ecological restoration

If you are interested in contributing to the TREE series on Disability in Ecology and Evolution, email me at tree@cell.com

We want hear from as many people as possible.

December will be the last in the series, for this issue we will need contributions by c7 October.

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Rainforest ecology in the shade of deep time Our understanding of the ecology and evolution of Eocene paleobiodiversity in the Southern Hemisphere remains limited. A middle Eocene (∼41 Ma) tropical ecosystem from the Umarsar Lignite Mine, recently reported by Agnihotri et al., revealed over 800 arthropods and 118 palynomorph species thriving in warm, humid conditions. The northward drift and favorable climate of India drove diversification, offering insights for modern tropical forest conservation amid climate change.

Online now: Rainforest ecology in the shade of deep time

Beyond supergenes: the diverse roles of inversions in trait evolution Chromosomal inversions are ubiquitous across the Tree of Life, with genome-wide studies revealing a bias toward smaller inversions, yet research has disproportionately focused on large, supergene-like inversions linked to discrete phenotypes. This limits our understanding of inversions' roles in trait evolution, as their size affects their potential functional impact. Investigation of smaller inversions and multi-inversion genotypes is crucial to elucidate their role in shaping continuous traits and evolutionary adaptation. Addressing this requires a shift towards a systematic study of smaller inversions and the use of experimental assays and functional annotation to identify the evolutionary forces driving different genomic trait architectures.

Online now: Beyond supergenes: the diverse roles of inversions in trait evolution

The genomics of discrete polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection Disruptive selection can lead to the evolution of discrete morphs. We show that particular genetic architectures, in terms of dominance, epistasis, and linkage, are likely to evolve to produce discrete morphs under disruptive selection. Recent genomic studies have revealed that causative mutations tend to cluster, sometimes as a result of chromosomal rearrangements, but we still know little about the molecular mechanisms of dominance and epistasis. Although disruptive selection can also lead to speciation, once an optimal genetic architecture has evolved, disruptive selection no longer promotes the evolution of assortative mating. For a better understanding of the conditions that promote or constrain speciation, it is necessary to address how fast such a genetic architecture can evolve.

Online now: The genomics of discrete polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection

Safeguarding nocturnal pollinators for food security in sub-Saharan Africa Nocturnal pollinators are vital for food security in sub-Saharan Africa, yet they face numerous threats, including habitat loss, light pollution, and climate change. Understanding these combined risks and implementing targeted management strategies to protect them is essential for ensuring sustainable agriculture, food security, and biodiversity in the region.

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A landscape ecological approach to spatial conservation planning – ecological security pattern Addressing practical challenges in ecological conservation and restoration planning, ecological security pattern (ESP) – spatial networks composed of ecological sources and connecting corridors – offers an actionable and nature-based framework. Rooted in landscape ecology, the ESP approach integrates ecological thresholds and connectivity to ensure ecosystem integrity and landscape sustainability. Although ESP-related research has proliferated – particularly in China – critical dimensions, such as underlying ecological mechanisms, spatiotemporal dynamics, and spillover effects, have received less attention. Consequently, the foundational scientific concepts and research priorities remain insufficiently articulated, hindering ESP’s further development and broader international acceptance. To fill this knowledge gap, we identify key research issues for ESP to tackle the main challenges in its construction, optimization, and evaluation, highlighting future directions as a landscape ecological approach to spatial conservation and restoration planning.

Online now: A landscape ecological approach to spatial conservation planning – ecological security pattern

🚨 The #TIBSCelebrates50 call for cover art is open until Sept 30!

Are you a #SciArtist who loves biochemistry?! A biochemist who also creates #SciArt?! 🖌️✨ Share your design - one will be selected to be featured on the cover of the January 2026 issue!

More info 👉 lnkd.in/edXQmmeg

#TIBS50 #CoverArt