Nature ecology & evolution最新文献

{"title":"9,000 years of genetic continuity in southernmost Africa demonstrated at Oakhurst rockshelter","authors":"Joscha Gretzinger, Victoria E. Gibbon, Sandra E. Penske, Judith C. Sealy, Adam B. Rohrlach, Domingo C. Salazar-García, Johannes Krause, Stephan Schiffels","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02532-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02532-3","url":null,"abstract":"Southern Africa has one of the longest records of fossil hominins and harbours the largest human genetic diversity in the world. Yet, despite its relevance for human origins and spread around the globe, the formation and processes of its gene pool in the past are still largely unknown. Here, we present a time transect of genome-wide sequences from nine individuals recovered from a single site in South Africa, Oakhurst Rockshelter. Spanning the whole Holocene, the ancient DNA of these individuals allows us to reconstruct the demographic trajectories of the indigenous San population and their ancestors during the last 10,000 years. We show that, in contrast to most regions around the world, the population history of southernmost Africa was not characterized by several waves of migration, replacement and admixture but by long-lasting genetic continuity from the early Holocene to the end of the Later Stone Age. Although the advent of pastoralism and farming substantially transformed the gene pool in most parts of southern Africa after 1,300 bp, we demonstrate using allele-frequency and identity-by-descent segment-based methods that the ‡Khomani San and Karretjiemense from South Africa still show direct signs of relatedness to the Oakhurst hunter-gatherers, a pattern obscured by recent, extensive non-Southern African admixture. Yet, some southern San in South Africa still preserve this ancient, Pleistocene-derived genetic signature, extending the period of genetic continuity until today. Oakhurst rockshelter in South Africa documents marked cultural change during the Holocene, but genome-wide data from ancient human individuals at the site now demonstrate a remarkable degree of genetic continuity over the last 9,000 years: the contemporary ‡Khomani San and Karretjiemense from South Africa still show direct signs of relatedness to the Oakhurst hunter-gatherers.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 11","pages":"2121-2134"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02532-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142245701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evolutionary shift of a tipping point can precipitate, or forestall, collapse in a microbial community","authors":"Christopher Blake, Jake N. Barber, Tim Connallon, Michael J. McDonald","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02543-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02543-0","url":null,"abstract":"Global ecosystems are rapidly approaching tipping points, where minute shifts can lead to drastic ecological changes. Theory predicts that evolution can shape a system’s tipping point behaviour, but direct experimental support is lacking. Here we investigate the power of evolutionary processes to alter these critical thresholds and protect an ecological community from collapse. To do this, we propagate a two-species microbial system composed of Escherichia coli and baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for over 4,000 generations, and map ecological stability before and after coevolution. Our results reveal that tipping points—and other geometric properties of ecological communities—can evolve to alter the range of conditions under which our microbial community can flourish. We develop a mathematical model to illustrate how evolutionary changes in parameters such as growth rate, carrying capacity and resistance to environmental change affect ecological resilience. Our study shows that adaptation of key species can shift an ecological community’s tipping point, potentially promoting ecological stability or accelerating collapse. Empirical evidence on how evolution affects the stability of ecological communities is scarce. Here, using two-species microbial assemblages as a model system, the authors show that adaptation can alter the tipping points of an ecological community.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 12","pages":"2325-2335"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Growth rate as a link between microbial diversity and soil biogeochemistry","authors":"Megan M. Foley, Bram W. G. Stone, Tristan A. Caro, Noah W. Sokol, Benjamin J. Koch, Steven J. Blazewicz, Paul Dijkstra, Michaela Hayer, Kirsten Hofmockel, Brianna K. Finley, Michelle Mack, Jane Marks, Rebecca L. Mau, Victoria Monsaint-Queeney, Ember Morrissey, Jeffrey Propster, Alicia Purcell, Egbert Schwartz, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Noah Fierer, Bruce A. Hungate","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02520-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02520-7","url":null,"abstract":"Measuring the growth rate of a microorganism is a simple yet profound way to quantify its effect on the world. The absolute growth rate of a microbial population reflects rates of resource assimilation, biomass production and element transformation—some of the many ways in which organisms affect Earth’s ecosystems and climate. Microbial fitness in the environment depends on the ability to reproduce quickly when conditions are favourable and adopt a survival physiology when conditions worsen, which cells coordinate by adjusting their relative growth rate. At the population level, relative growth rate is a sensitive metric of fitness, linking survival and reproduction to the ecology and evolution of populations. Techniques combining omics and stable isotope probing enable sensitive measurements of the growth rates of microbial assemblages and individual taxa in soil. Microbial ecologists can explore how the growth rates of taxa with known traits and evolutionary histories respond to changes in resource availability, environmental conditions and interactions with other organisms. We anticipate that quantitative and scalable data on the growth rates of soil microorganisms, coupled with measurements of biogeochemical fluxes, will allow scientists to test and refine ecological theory and advance process-based models of carbon flux, nutrient uptake and ecosystem productivity. Measurements of in situ microbial growth rates provide insights into the ecology of populations and can be used to quantitatively link microbial diversity to soil biogeochemistry. This Perspective discusses how recent developments in the ability to measure the growth of microbial populations, which provides an indicator of population fitness, can inform ecological and biogeochemical models.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 11","pages":"2018-2026"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Migratory lifestyle carries no added overall energy cost in a partial migratory songbird","authors":"Nils Linek, Scott W. Yanco, Tamara Volkmer, Daniel Zuñiga, Martin Wikelski, Jesko Partecke","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02545-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02545-y","url":null,"abstract":"Seasonal bird migration may provide energy benefits associated with moving to areas with less physiologically challenging climates or increased food availability, but migratory movements themselves may carry high costs. However, time-dynamic energy profiles of free-living migrants—especially small-bodied songbirds—are challenging to measure. Here we quantify energy output and thermoregulatory costs in partially migratory common blackbirds using implanted heart rate and temperature loggers paired with automated radio telemetry and energetic modelling. Our results show that blackbirds save considerable energy in preparation for migration by decreasing heart rate and body temperature 28 days before departure, potentially dwarfing the energy costs of migratory flights. Yet, in warmer wintering areas, migrants do not appear to decrease total daily energy expenditure despite a substantially reduced cost of thermoregulation. These findings indicate differential metabolic programmes across different wintering strategies despite equivalent overall energy expenditure, suggesting that the maintenance of migration is associated with differences in energy allocation rather than with total energy expenditure. The energetic costs of seasonal bird migration are challenging to measure. Here bio-loggers paired with radio telemetry and energetic modelling show that blackbirds offset the energetic cost of migration by decreasing heart rate and body temperature 28 days before departure but do not decrease total daily energy expenditure in warmer wintering areas.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 12","pages":"2286-2296"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02545-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evolution alters ecological resilience","authors":"P. Catalina Chaparro-Pedraza","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02542-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02542-1","url":null,"abstract":"A long-running coevolution experiment on bacteria and yeasts shows that adaptive evolution can shift the tipping points that trigger critical transitions in a community.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 12","pages":"2155-2156"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lake-centred sedentary lifestyle of early Tibetan Plateau Indigenous populations at high elevation 4,400 years ago","authors":"Xiaoyan Yang, Yu Gao, Shargan Wangdue, Jingkun Ran, Qing Wang, Songtao Chen, Jishuai Yang, Tianyi Wang, Zhengquan Gu, Ying Zhang, Peng Cao, Qingyan Dai, Shungang Chen, Yan Tong, Nihanxue Jia, Qingli Sun, Yunzhe Huang, Linda Perry, Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, Xu Han, Feng Liu, Xiaotian Feng, Qi Yang, Yunming Wang, Shihua Hu, Yaofei Tian, Jianglong Guo, Xinwei Liang, Ting You, Yazhong Li, Yunan Zhang, Zhenhua Deng, Ling Qin, Xiaohong Wu, Yijie Zhuang, Yichen Liu, Qiaomei Fu, Fahu Chen","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02539-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02539-w","url":null,"abstract":"The onset of sedentism on the Tibetan Plateau is often presumed to be associated with the dispersal of agriculture or farmers from archaeological sites located in the low elevation margins of the plateau. Previous studies of the plateau assumed that all foragers were probably mobile, but few systematic excavations at forager sites have been conducted to inform us about their settlement patterns. Here we report the world’s highest elevation sedentary way of living exhibited by the Mabu Co site at 4,446 metres above sea level, deep in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau 4,400–4,000 years ago. Our interdisciplinary study indicates that the site was occupied by Indigenous inhabitants of the plateau, representing the earliest known DNA evidence of foragers who predominantly harbour the southern plateau ancestry. The evidence shows that they had a sedentary lifestyle primarily supported by fishing at nearby lakes, supplemented by mammal and bird hunting, as well as small-scale exchanges of millet and rice crops. Ancient DNA, stable isotopes and other archaeological methods establish that humans were living at extremely high elevation on the Tibetan Plateau 4,400 years ago, maintaining sedentary lifestyles that combined fishing, hunting and crop exchange.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 12","pages":"2297-2308"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142234463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Author Correction: A policy-driven framework for conserving the best of Earth’s remaining moist tropical forests","authors":"Andrew J. Hansen, Patrick Burns, Jamison Ervin, Scott J. Goetz, Matthew Hansen, Oscar Venter, James E. M. Watson, Patrick A. Jantz, Anne L. S. Virnig, Kevin Barnett, Rajeev Pillay, Scott Atkinson, Christina Supples, Susana Rodríguez-Buritica, Dolors Armenteras","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02557-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02557-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 12","pages":"2336-2336"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02557-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142291522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evolution of evolvability in rapidly adapting populations","authors":"James T. Ferrare, Benjamin H. Good","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02527-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02527-0","url":null,"abstract":"Mutations can alter the short-term fitness of an organism, as well as the rates and benefits of future mutations. While numerous examples of these evolvability modifiers have been observed in rapidly adapting microbial populations, existing theory struggles to predict when they will be favoured by natural selection. Here we develop a mathematical framework for predicting the fates of genetic variants that modify the rates and benefits of future mutations in linked genomic regions. We derive analytical expressions showing how the fixation probabilities of these variants depend on the size of the population and the diversity of competing mutations. We find that competition between linked mutations can dramatically enhance selection for modifiers that increase the benefits of future mutations, even when they impose a strong direct cost on fitness. However, we also find that modest direct benefits can be sufficient to drive evolutionary dead ends to fixation. Our results suggest that subtle differences in evolvability could play an important role in shaping the long-term success of genetic variants in rapidly evolving microbial populations. Evolvability modifier mutations alter the rates and benefits of future mutations, but it is difficult to predict when they will be favoured by natural selection. A mathematical framework shows that competition between linked mutations can drive strong selection for modifiers and that subtle differences in evolvability can affect the long-term success of mutations.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 11","pages":"2085-2096"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142166421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"David Penny (1938–2024)","authors":"Matthew J. Phillips, Anthony M. Poole, Patricia A. McLenachan, Peter J. Lockhart, Michael D. Hendy","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02540-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02540-3","url":null,"abstract":"Theoretical biologist who ‘tamed’ mathematicians and tested the theory of evolution.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 11","pages":"2006-2007"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02540-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142166423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"International wildlife trade quotas are characterized by high compliance and coverage but insufficient adaptive management","authors":"Oscar Morton, Vincent Nijman, David P. Edwards","doi":"10.1038/s41559-024-02531-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41559-024-02531-4","url":null,"abstract":"Effective management of international wildlife trade is crucial to ensure sustainability. Quotas are a common trade management tool and specify an annual number of individuals to be exported, yet at present there is no global assessment of quota coverage and compliance. Using over 7,000 country–year specific reptile quotas established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) covering 343 species, we quantify quota coverage, compliance, trade trends pre-quota and post-quota setting and whether quotas likely represent adaptive management. Quotas predominantly concerned live wild-sourced reptiles, with only 6.6% of live non-zero quotas exceeded and 4.5% of zero quotas subverted. For 62.3% of species, quotas were established higher than pre-quota trade, with traded volumes post-quota mainly unchanged or higher than pre-quota establishment, thus potentially facilitating sustainable trade. Over 38% of quota series of species remained at the same level each year, with the longest-running quotas proportionately updated the least, indicating that many quotas do not change adaptively in response to changing threats to species through time. Greater specificity in exactly what quotas cover, justification for unchanged quotas and transparency over quota determination are needed to ensure that high compliance equates to sustainable use. Analysis of more than 7,000 quotas for reptile trade from around the world identifies that few quotas are exceeded, although quotas often exceed pre-quota trade volumes, and that many quotas remain unchanged, with the longest-running quotas proportionately changing the least.","PeriodicalId":18835,"journal":{"name":"Nature ecology & evolution","volume":"8 11","pages":"2048-2057"},"PeriodicalIF":13.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02531-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142158784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}