{"title":"Understanding biological invasions through the lens of environmental niches.","authors":"Chunlong Liu, Céline Bellard, Jonathan M Jeschke","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding successful invasions across taxa and systems in a unified framework is a central goal of biological conservation. While the environmental niche is a promising concept to improve our understanding of biological invasions, existing studies have not applied it to comprehensively examine all invasion stages. Here, we provide a framework that integrates the environmental niche and invasion process at both the species and the population level. By elucidating how species and populations perform in the niche space, we demonstrate how different dimensions of species niches can help in understanding inter- and intraspecific variations in the success and impact of non-native species, and identify knowledge gaps. The niche framework also offers flexibility in integrating other factors driving the success and impact of non-native species.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"385-394"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143477045","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":"Tandem repeat polymorphisms shape local adaptation.","authors":"David G King","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Within widespread populations, efficient adaptation to local environmental conditions can be facilitated by abundant quantitative variation supplied by short tandem DNA repeats. The peculiar site-specific mutability of such repeats can provide populations with the functional equivalent of tuning knobs for adaptively adjusting quantitative trait values.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"331-334"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143574127","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}
Irene Teixidor-Toneu, Giulia Mattalia, Sophie Caillon, Abdullah Abdullah, Živa Fiser, Pål Karlsen, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Anneleen Kool, Gabriela Loayza, Anna Porcuna-Ferrer, Ismael Vaccaro, Christoph Schunko
{"title":"Stewardship underpins sustainable foraging.","authors":"Irene Teixidor-Toneu, Giulia Mattalia, Sophie Caillon, Abdullah Abdullah, Živa Fiser, Pål Karlsen, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Anneleen Kool, Gabriela Loayza, Anna Porcuna-Ferrer, Ismael Vaccaro, Christoph Schunko","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Foraging wild plants and mushrooms can be both beneficial and detrimental to biodiversity. We examine the role of stewardship practices, which are grounded in care, knowledge, and agency, in fostering sustainable use of wild species. These practices are pervasive among foragers across social-ecological systems yet neglected in research and policymaking.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"315-319"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143459195","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":"Building plant diversity into mechanisms of nutrient dilution.","authors":"Michael Kaspari, Ellen A R Welti","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"329-330"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143658681","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}
Anne J Romero, Anastasia Kolesnikova, Thomas H G Ezard, Michael Charles, Rafal M Gutaker, Colin P Osborne, Mark A Chapman
{"title":"'Domesticability': were some species predisposed for domestication?","authors":"Anne J Romero, Anastasia Kolesnikova, Thomas H G Ezard, Michael Charles, Rafal M Gutaker, Colin P Osborne, Mark A Chapman","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Crop domestication arises from a coevolutionary process between plants and humans, resulting in predictable and improved resources for humans. Of the thousands of edible species, many were collected or cultivated for food, but only a few became domesticated and even fewer supply the bulk of the plant-based calories consumed by humans. Why so few species became fully domesticated is not understood. Here we propose three aspects of plant genomes and phenotypes that could have promoted the domestication of only a few wild species, namely differences in plasticity, trait linkage, and mutation rates. We can use contemporary biological knowledge to identify factors underlying why only some species are amenable to domestication. Such studies will facilitate future domestication and improvement efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"356-363"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142984899","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}
Kanji M Tomita, Philip J Manlick, Kobayashi Makoto, Saori Fujii, Fujio Hyodo, Tadashi Miyashita, Tomonori Tsunoda
{"title":"The underappreciated roles of aboveground vertebrates on belowground communities.","authors":"Kanji M Tomita, Philip J Manlick, Kobayashi Makoto, Saori Fujii, Fujio Hyodo, Tadashi Miyashita, Tomonori Tsunoda","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In recent decades, evidence of interactions between aboveground and belowground (i.e., soil) subsystems has accumulated. The effects of aboveground vertebrates on belowground communities have traditionally focused on plant-mediated pathways, but we show that aboveground vertebrates impact belowground communities and ecological functions without plant-mediated pathways via both consumptive and non-consumptive processes. We then show that mobile, aboveground vertebrates have significant but often unrealized potential to structure soil communities from local to macroecological scales by linking aboveground and belowground food webs across habitats and ecosystems. Collectively, this synthesis of aboveground vertebrate effects on belowground communities integrates multiple ecological disciplines to advance a more comprehensive understanding of aboveground-belowground linkages across space and time.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"364-374"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143012341","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}
Michael Griesser, Nigel C Bennett, Judith M Burkart, Daniel W Hart, Natalie Uomini, Miyako H Warrington
{"title":"The power of caring touch: from survival to prosocial cooperation.","authors":"Michael Griesser, Nigel C Bennett, Judith M Burkart, Daniel W Hart, Natalie Uomini, Miyako H Warrington","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.017","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cooperation is a pivotal biological phenomenon that occurs in diverse forms. In species that engage in helping, individuals vary in the time they spend together and the degree of their physical proximity, which affects the extent of physical touch between individuals. Here, we propose that touch activates a hormonal feedback loop that supports bond formation and maintenance in mating, parenting, and social contexts. Notably, extended parenting is essential for the emergence of enduring bonds and the development of the prosocial mindset that fosters forms of cooperation with delayed benefits. We incorporate these ideas into the caring-touch hypothesis (CT-H), which emphasizes the role of oxytocin-vasotocin hormones, touch, and enduring bonds in the evolution of different forms of cooperation.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"346-355"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142967058","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":"Neglected supralittoral habitats on coastal artificial structures.","authors":"Fabio Bulleri, Moisés A Aguilera, Martin Thiel","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.01.005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Artificial structures are ubiquitous features of urbanized coastal landscapes, but research and management solutions have focused on lower shore communities, neglecting the terrestrial-marine transitional zone. The ecological role of supralittoral habitats on artificial structures generates unique opportunities for the conservation of native species and reducing the spread of nondesired species.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"323-326"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143432492","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":"Disability in ecology and evolution.","authors":"Joseph Hanly, Anon, Jan Perret, Anam Khan","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2025.02.005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"309-314"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143693396","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":"Integrating social learning, social networks, and non-parental transgenerational plasticity.","authors":"Jennifer K Hellmann, Andrew Sih","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) has largely focused on how parental exposure to ecological conditions shapes the phenotypes of future generations. However, organisms acquire information about their ecological environment via social learning, which can also shape TGP in profound ways. We demonstrate that non-parents alter how parents detect and respond to environmental cues in ways that spillover to affect offspring, non-parents influence offspring even without direct physical interactions, and parental cues received by offspring can alter the phenotypes of other juveniles. Because parents can draw on the experiences of a network of non-parents, these socially acquired cues may increase parents' ability to accurately detect environmental shifts and may explain why TGP is surprisingly ubiquitous despite theory predicting that it should be relatively rare.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"335-345"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142928469","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}