Ruth Fawthrop, José Cerca, George Pacheco, Glenn-Peter Sætre, Elizabeth S C Scordato, Mark Ravinet, Melissah Rowe
{"title":"Understanding human-commensalism through an ecological and evolutionary framework.","authors":"Ruth Fawthrop, José Cerca, George Pacheco, Glenn-Peter Sætre, Elizabeth S C Scordato, Mark Ravinet, Melissah Rowe","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.10.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.10.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human-commensalism has been intuitively characterised as an interspecific interaction whereby non-human individuals benefit from tight associations with anthropogenic environments. However, a clear definition of human-commensalism, rooted within an ecological and evolutionary framework, has yet to be proposed. Here, we define human-commensalism as a population-level dependence on anthropogenic resources, associated with genetic differentiation from the ancestral, non-commensal form. Such a definition helps us to understand the origins of human-commensalism and the pace and form of adaptation to anthropogenic niches, and may enable the prediction of future evolution in an increasingly human-modified world. Our discussion encourages greater consideration of the spatial and temporal complexity in anthropogenic niches, promoting a nuanced consideration of human-commensal populations when formulating research questions.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"159-169"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142629006","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}
S Helene Richter, Barbara A Caspers, Melanie Dammhahn, Sylvia Kaiser
{"title":"Animal research revisited - the case of behavioural studies.","authors":"S Helene Richter, Barbara A Caspers, Melanie Dammhahn, Sylvia Kaiser","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animal research is a matter of intense public debate, with some people supporting and some opposing it. Drawing from examples of behavioural biology, we argue that such an 'all-or-nothing' debate falls short. We highlight the potential of better science communication and tailored ethics assessments to foster a more nuanced view.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"99-103"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142792543","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}
Sylvaine Giakoumi, Anthony J Richardson, Aggeliki Doxa, Stefano Moro, Marco Andrello, Jeffrey O Hanson, Virgilio Hermoso, Tessa Mazor, Jennifer McGowan, Heini Kujala, Elizabeth Law, Jorge G Álvarez-Romero, Rafael A Magris, Elena Gissi, Nur Arafeh-Dalmau, Anna Metaxas, Elina A Virtanen, Natalie C Ban, Robert M Runya, Daniel C Dunn, Simonetta Fraschetti, Ibon Galparsoro, Robert J Smith, Francois Bastardie, Vanessa Stelzenmüller, Hugh P Possingham, Stelios Katsanevakis
{"title":"Advances in systematic conservation planning to meet global biodiversity goals.","authors":"Sylvaine Giakoumi, Anthony J Richardson, Aggeliki Doxa, Stefano Moro, Marco Andrello, Jeffrey O Hanson, Virgilio Hermoso, Tessa Mazor, Jennifer McGowan, Heini Kujala, Elizabeth Law, Jorge G Álvarez-Romero, Rafael A Magris, Elena Gissi, Nur Arafeh-Dalmau, Anna Metaxas, Elina A Virtanen, Natalie C Ban, Robert M Runya, Daniel C Dunn, Simonetta Fraschetti, Ibon Galparsoro, Robert J Smith, Francois Bastardie, Vanessa Stelzenmüller, Hugh P Possingham, Stelios Katsanevakis","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Systematic conservation planning (SCP) involves the cost-effective placement and application of management actions to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. Given the political momentum for greater global nature protection, restoration, and improved management of natural resources articulated in the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, assessing the state-of-the-art of SCP is timely. Recent advances in SCP include faster and more exact algorithms and software, inclusion of ecosystem services and multiple facets of biodiversity (e.g., genetic diversity, functional diversity), climate-smart approaches, prioritizing multiple actions, and increased SCP accessibility through online tools. To promote the adoption of SCP by decision-makers, we provide recommendations for bridging the gap between SCP science and practice, such as standardizing the communication of planning uncertainty and capacity-building training courses.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143068124","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":"https://doi.org/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":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","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}
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":"https://doi.org/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":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","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}
{"title":"Extinction of experience among ecologists.","authors":"Masashi Soga, Kevin J Gaston","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.12.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining. We call for greater attention to this ongoing loss of direct field experience within the ecology community, as it could have widespread consequences for science and education, ultimately hindering efforts to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142967057","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":"https://doi.org/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":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","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}
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":"https://doi.org/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":""},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","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":"Keystone niche individuals: some are more unequal than others.","authors":"Federico Garrido-de León, Valentina Franco-Trecu, Raul Costa-Pereira","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Conspecific individuals often diverge in their foraging decisions. Indeed, across diverse taxa, generalist populations contain both generalist and specialist individuals. This intraspecific niche variation allows some individuals to contribute disproportionately to their population's niche. Here, we present the concept of keystone niche individuals and why it matters for ecologists.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"14-17"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142771982","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":"The biological relevance of 'me': body awareness in animals.","authors":"Petra Dobos, Péter Pongrácz","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.10.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2024.10.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Applying human concepts of self-awareness to animals often lacks anchoring in biologically meaningful contexts. We advocate a new, modular framework of self-representation, including body-awareness, which helps an individual to negotiate physical obstacles. We emphasize the importance of ecologically valid approaches that allow adaptivity-based hypotheses and discussion about self-representation.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"11-13"},"PeriodicalIF":16.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142547666","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}