Jacob C Dunn, Christian T Herbst, Coen P H Elemans, W Tecumseh Fitch
{"title":"Constraint and convergence in the evolution of vertebrate sound production.","authors":"Jacob C Dunn, Christian T Herbst, Coen P H Elemans, W Tecumseh Fitch","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding vertebrate sound production offers powerful insights into constraint and convergence in evolution. Sound production falls into two broad categories: muscle-driven and airflow-driven. Muscle-driven mechanisms, widespread among fish, are tightly limited by muscle contraction rates, producing lower-frequency signals that often radiate poorly. In contrast, airflow-driven mechanisms, especially those using myoelastic aerodynamic (MEAD) principles, overcome these limits, enabling long-distance communication across a vast frequency range. MEAD-based laryngeal sound production dominates in tetrapods and convergently evolved in novel vocal organs in birds and toothed whales-all supporting complex, long-distance communication and new acoustic niches. In this review, we show how physical and physiological constraints shaped convergent innovations, positioning MEAD as a central evolutionary strategy underlying the remarkable diversity of vertebrate sounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"749-761"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148303073","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":"Biogeographical costs and opportunities of thermal adaptation.","authors":"Aelys M Humphreys","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.06.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.06.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>What determines where species occur and where they do not? Brightly et al. showed that cold-origin lineages are less likely to form amphitropical distributions. This raises questions about the biogeographical costs and opportunities of adapting to a particular thermal environment, with implications for species persistence or extinction under climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"684-686"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148412966","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":"Hitchhiking of deleterious mutations within chromosomal inversions.","authors":"Jana Nickel, Andrew D Foote","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The suppression of recombination can have the benefit of associating multiple adaptive alleles but at the cost of increasing linkage between beneficial and deleterious alleles. Chromosomal inversions provide a natural genomic context to study such genetic hitchhiking. Inversions suppress recombination in heterokaryotypes, effectively creating large linkage blocks that behave like partially asexual regions. Synthesizing theory and empirical studies on variation in inversion frequencies among well-studied ecotypes highlights an emerging pattern of two evolutionary trajectories in nature. An excess of inversion homokaryotypes, due to their association with an ecologically adaptive trait, results in the purging of deleterious mutations facilitated by recombination. In contrast, without strong ecological selection, deleterious mutations can accumulate in inversion heterokaryotypes, which then rise in frequency due to overdominance.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"726-735"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147875812","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}
Robert J Fletcher, James M Bullock, Laura J Graham, Nicholas Kortessis, Kevin Watts
{"title":"Resurrecting habitat fragmentation as a process over time.","authors":"Robert J Fletcher, James M Bullock, Laura J Graham, Nicholas Kortessis, Kevin Watts","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.03.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.03.009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Habitat loss and fragmentation occur over time. Despite this truism, understanding the effects of habitat fragmentation has, in recent years, predominantly focused on interpreting snapshots of current landscape configuration, effectively focusing on spatial patterns rather than the process of change over time. This recent emphasis on current patterns is haunted by implicit assumptions regarding changes over time, thereby obstructing ecological understanding and the ability to provide clear and actionable guidance for conservation. We identify many issues that emerge from focusing solely on current landscape patterns and discuss the implications of shifting from the current paradigm to a time-focused, process-based paradigm for interpreting the effects of fragmentation, including its relevance for conservation policy and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"598-606"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147729416","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":"Plantations are invasive pathogen bridgeheads-response to Li et al.","authors":"Tanay Bose, Michael J Wingfield","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.05.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.05.006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"578-580"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148043860","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":"Is a comprehensive root economics space a chimera?","authors":"Jiajia Zheng, Grégoire T Freschet, Liang Kou","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.06.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.06.001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"586-588"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148296536","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}
Sally C Y Lau, Nerida G Wilson, Ira R Cooke, Kerstin Johannesson, Jan M Strugnell
{"title":"The Southern Ocean as an evolutionary arena for structural genomic variation.","authors":"Sally C Y Lau, Nerida G Wilson, Ira R Cooke, Kerstin Johannesson, Jan M Strugnell","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Structural genomic variation is a significant evolutionary modifier, impacting species adaptation, diversification, and speciation globally, yet its general contribution to evolution in geographical areas of environmental variability is rarely discussed. Long-standing hypotheses suggest that the Earth's orbital oscillations, generating cycles of environmental instability across the Southern Ocean seafloor, have boosted the formation of biological diversity. We highlight that structural genomic variation possibly influences evolutionary processes in the Southern Ocean through time, linking to the region's unique biogeography and turbulent physical history. Structural genomic variation is, hence, emerging as one of the causes that can shape adaptation, diversification, and divergence in one of the largest marine evolutionary arenas, the Southern Ocean.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"627-637"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147782079","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":"A pioneering theory for anticipating changes in population growth?","authors":"Laura Touzot, Marlène Gamelon","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.05.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.05.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Global change is altering the length of environmental cycles. The life-history-cycle alignment theory predicts that a length of environmental cycles similar to the mean age of mothers at childbirth in a wild population should promote its growth, thus providing a highly relevant framework to anticipate future losers and winners.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"589-592"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148151553","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}
Claudia Coleine, Wolfgang Obermeier, Lukas Lehnert, Pok M Leung, Claudio Donati
{"title":"Linking microbial function and remote sensing for understanding drylands.","authors":"Claudia Coleine, Wolfgang Obermeier, Lukas Lehnert, Pok M Leung, Claudio Donati","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drylands, covering over 40% of Earth's land surface, are expanding due to accelerating aridification and vegetation loss. Their microbial communities sustain essential processes such as carbon fixation, nitrogen cycling, and trace gas regulation; yet they remain largely invisible to global models. While microbiome studies reveal mechanistic details at local scales, environmental monitoring requires spatial continuity. We argue that advances in remote sensing, with its increasing resolutions, now allow microbial processes to be observed, scaled, and modeled across regions. Linking omics and spectral data can reveal microbial 'sentinels' of ecosystem change, transforming microbial ecology into a spatially predictive science. This integration provides a foundation for early-warning systems of biodiversity loss and land degradation, positioning microbes as measurable actors in Earth system dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"618-626"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147723779","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}
Dustin Marshall, Craig White, Van Savage, Naomi Levine
{"title":"Second thoughts about first principles in biology.","authors":"Dustin Marshall, Craig White, Van Savage, Naomi Levine","doi":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tree.2026.04.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>First-principles approaches, based on physics or chemistry, are key pillars of biological theory. Despite their value, there are recurrent problems with many first-principles approaches in biology: they often include incomplete physics or are driven by unscrutinised biological assumptions. Meanwhile, debates about biological theories based on first principles usually focus on the fit of predictions to data-we argue such a focus confuses prediction with explanation. A good fit of predictions to data is a necessary, but insufficient condition for a theory to be sound. First-principles approaches in biology will only be effective when the physics and biology are both sufficiently complete. Determining what elements are essential to include is an enduring but exciting challenge of science.</p>","PeriodicalId":23274,"journal":{"name":"Trends in ecology & evolution","volume":" ","pages":"668-676"},"PeriodicalIF":17.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147989308","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}