Alexis Licht, Isabel Sanmartín, Andrea S Meseguer, Lydian Boschman, Bram Vaes, Ignacio Quintero, Helene Morlon, K Christopher Beard
{"title":"Integrating Earth history into phylogenetic diversification models.","authors":"Alexis Licht, Isabel Sanmartín, Andrea S Meseguer, Lydian Boschman, Bram Vaes, Ignacio Quintero, Helene Morlon, K Christopher Beard","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The recent emergence of likelihood-based models and process-based macroevolutionary simulations integrating paleogeographic and paleoclimatic constraints marks a major step forward in linking Earth's history to biodiversity dynamics. These advances enable deeper insights into how paleoenvironmental changes shape diversification, but significant challenges remain when integrating Earth and life sciences data due to differences in data types, uncertainties, and disparities in spatial and temporal resolution. This review synthesizes current practices, tools, and limitations in merging Earth science data with macroevolutionary models, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and practical guidelines for resource selection and uncertainty management. Addressing these challenges will refine our understanding of how past environmental changes drove evolutionary patterns, bridging Earth and life sciences.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"842-855"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147989311","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":"Climate reframes Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum.","authors":"Kevin Panchana, Ileana Herrera","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum asks whether invaders succeed by resembling or differing from native species. Ramirez-Parada et al. demonstrate that climate plays a crucial role in determining both outcomes: invaders resemble natives in cold or dry regions but diverge in warm, humid ones, thereby reframing the conundrum as an environmental continuum.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"793-795"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148713752","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":"Transboundary protected areas for cross-ecosystem conservation.","authors":"Wenjie Li, Fang Han, Xuan Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"791-792"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148798245","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}
Daniel Oro, Daniel F Doak, Àlex Giménez-Romero, Meritxell Genovart
{"title":"Rare events and their role in ecological dynamics.","authors":"Daniel Oro, Daniel F Doak, Àlex Giménez-Romero, Meritxell Genovart","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rare events are low-frequency environmental events whose magnitude and ecological consequences can vary across ecosystems. In this review, we clarify the terminology used to describe these anomalies and propose a statistical definition that disentangles environmental rarity and magnitude from ecological impact. Rare events generate a wide range of responses, from population declines and ecosystem reorganisation to neutral or even positive demographic outcomes. Exceptionally intense perturbations potentially dominate ecological outcomes regardless of their rarity. More commonly, however, their influence on long-term dynamics emerges from the joint effects of magnitude and return interval, such that less extreme but more frequent perturbations could contribute more consistently to population trajectories than rarer events. Long-term demographic studies are essential to identify how rare events shape ecological dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148814112","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}
Andrew J King, Ella G Henry, Simon Garnier, William L Allen, Robert J P Heathcote, Marco Fele, Marina Papadopoulou, Daniel W E Sankey, Ines Fürtbauer
{"title":"Evolutionary spandrels in collective animal behaviour.","authors":"Andrew J King, Ella G Henry, Simon Garnier, William L Allen, Robert J P Heathcote, Marco Fele, Marina Papadopoulou, Daniel W E Sankey, Ines Fürtbauer","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Collective behaviour is widespread in the animal kingdom and can enhance individual fitness. Yet not all collective behaviours are adaptations. Instead, some may be nonadaptive or 'evolutionary spandrels'-traits that originated as by-products in the sense proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. Here, we argue that self-organising processes provide a route through which evolutionary spandrels in collective animal behaviour can occur, and we provide three examples: spatial organisation in primate groups, division of labour in ants, and insect chorusing. We then consider how such outcomes may be co-opted into adaptive roles through exaptation and conclude by outlining the challenges associated with testing adaptive and nonadaptive hypotheses in collective behaviour research using individual-based studies, phylogenetic comparative analyses, and agent-based models.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148813983","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":"Fix-do not ditch-the fundamental niche.","authors":"Brian J McGill, Daniel C Laughlin","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The realized niche captures only a fraction of the conditions in which a species can survive and reproduce, yet remains the basis for most predictions of how species respond to global change. No matter how sophisticated species distribution models have become, reliance on the realized niche biases forecasts of population persistence and range shifts. Rapid global change has turned the fundamental niche from a theoretical construct into a mission-critical objective for conservation science. Empirical tools exist to operationalize it. If we stop holding the fundamental niche to higher epistemic standards than the realized niche and treat survival and regeneration data from beyond the realized niche as genuine reflections of it, then we can advance this foundational yet surprisingly nascent research program.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148798284","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":"Symbiotic capacity in a changing ocean: emerging questions around phytoplankton interactions.","authors":"Soraya M Zwahlen, Flora Vincent","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phytoplankton fix half of global CO<sub>2</sub> annually and drive key global nutrient cycles. They depend on interactions with bacteria, viruses, and protists. Yet our understanding of these interactions remains fragmented. We introduce symbiotic capacity-an organism's ability to initiate, maintain, and modulate partnerships-as a quantifiable trait fundamental to phytoplankton ecology and resilience in changing oceans. By adapting Tinbergen's four questions from ethology, we reveal critical gaps in our knowledge regarding phytoplankton symbiotic capacity. While functional benefits, molecular mechanisms, and evolutionary origins of phytoplankton symbioses are increasingly documented, their developmental dynamics remain almost entirely unexplored. Bridging molecular mechanisms to planetary-scale biogeochemical processes requires a fifth question and suitable model systems, such as Chaetoceros diatoms, that integrate laboratory tractability with ecological relevance.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148798309","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":"Plagued by drought: how water scarcity reshapes host-parasite interactions.","authors":"Pieter Johnson, Tara Stewart Merrill","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Droughts are intensifying worldwide, reorganizing ecosystems and threatening biodiversity and human health. Yet their effects on infectious diseases are poorly understood and sometimes paradoxical, with water limitation often amplifying water-associated infections. This complexity arises because drought not only reduces water availability but also restructures the host-pathogen interactions that govern transmission. Synthesizing theory and empirical evidence from water-associated diseases, we identify three ecological mechanisms through which drought modifies infection dynamics: concentrating organisms into shrinking refugia, selectively favoring drought-tolerant hosts, vectors, and pathogens, and amplifying transmission heterogeneity across landscapes. By linking hydrological change to core epidemiological and ecological processes, this framework highlights parasite traits and strategies likely to be favored during drought while providing a foundation for forecasting infections in a water-limited world.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148726941","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":"Inbreeding tolerance predicts mechanisms of socially induced infertility in vertebrates.","authors":"Daniel W Hart, Nigel C Bennett","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In cooperatively breeding species, reproductively capable individuals often forgo breeding to assist others. This socially induced infertility is typically viewed as a consequence of cooperative breeding, yet the remarkable diversity of its mechanisms remains unexplained. We propose that cooperative living inevitably increases opportunities for reproduction among relatives, selecting for reproductive suppression to regulate the costs of inbreeding and reproductive conflict. Species-specific variation in inbreeding tolerance subsequently determines how suppression evolves. Where inbreeding tolerance is high, increased intragroup reproductive conflict favours strong physiological suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis to maintain social cohesion. Where inbreeding tolerance is low, behavioural mechanisms regulate reproduction while preserving reproductive competence. This framework explains mechanistic diversity and generates testable predictions across cooperative vertebrates.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148702272","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}
Amanda L Subalusky, Christopher L Dutton, Robert A McCleery
{"title":"The ripple effect of surface water on dryland ecosystems.","authors":"Amanda L Subalusky, Christopher L Dutton, Robert A McCleery","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.07.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animals in dryland systems often aggregate around water, concentrating trophic pressure, transporting resources, and modifying habitat. These effects have been described as piospheres of degraded soils and vegetation; however, we argue that this framing is incomplete. We propose that animal aggregations around surface water generate a ripple effect: cross-scale, reciprocal impacts on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that vary with water availability. As surface water becomes increasingly scarce under global change, management and conservation approaches should prioritize the restoration of spatiotemporal variability in surface waters. An integrated approach that bridges linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and combines community and ecosystem ecology is necessary to identify emergent ecosystem properties, predict landscape-scale impacts of altered surface water availability, and inform adaptive management.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148689876","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}