Research Briefing |
Featured
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Correspondence |
‘Heroic interference’ should not be the endgame of coral-reef restoration
- Mikhail Matz
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Correspondence |
Words won’t reduce the impact of conflict on nature — what’s needed is action
- Christopher P. Dunn
- , Brendan Mackey
- & Kathryn Gwiazdon
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Where I Work |
What a forest’s glow can reveal about the impact of environmental change
Albert Porcar Castell runs a small outdoor laboratory to draw connections between red-light fluorescence and gas exchange.
- Jack Leeming
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News & Views |
Australian megafires drove complex biodiversity outcomes
An ambitious analysis of data has revealed the effects of the 2019–20 Australian megafires on biodiversity. It turns out that the outcome is more nuanced than just the anticipated picture of a massive loss of species.
- Gavin M. Jones
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Article
| Open AccessBiodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires
Data collected from more than 2,000 taxa provide an unparalleled opportunity to quantify how extreme wildfires affect biodiversity, revealing that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.
- Don A. Driscoll
- , Kristina J. Macdonald
- & Ryan D. Phillips
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Article
| Open AccessPast foraminiferal acclimatization capacity is limited during future warming
Data from the fossil record, together with computational modelling, are used to assess the response of foraminifera (marine zooplankton) to temperature changes through time and to predict how well they will adjust to future climate-change-induced ocean warming.
- Rui Ying
- , Fanny M. Monteiro
- & Daniela N. Schmidt
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Article
| Open AccessMigrating is not enough for modern planktonic foraminifera in a changing ocean
Low-latitude planktonic foraminifera are coping with rapid ocean warming, acidification and nutrient shifts by migrating to deeper water-column depths or polewards, displacing higher-latitude species and reducing low-latitude diversity, ultimately being unable to adapt fast enough to survive in situ.
- Sonia Chaabane
- , Thibault de Garidel-Thoron
- & Ralf Schiebel
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Career Q&A |
‘I get paid for my outputs, not because I am Māori’: why Indigenous researchers often face double duty
Amanda Black’s work has shown that healthy soil structures depend on the synergy of a large variety of organisms — and so does scientific discovery, she argues.
- Jane Palmer
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Correspondence |
How fungus-farming ants have nourished biology for 150 years
- Caio A. Leal-Dutra
- , Jonathan Z. Shik
- & Ted R. Schultz
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Correspondence |
‘Invisible and uncharismatic’ fungi need taxonomy champions, too
- Jonathan Cazabonne
- & Danny Haelewaters
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News & Views |
A spider’s windproof web
A garden spider innovates to prevent web destruction by gusts of wind, and researchers call for a multidisciplinary approach to teaching science, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Where I Work |
I track bird movement to enhance conservation efforts
Ornithologist Ana Gonzalez studies migration patterns and works with local scientists to protect threatened birds.
- Nikki Forrester
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Book Review |
The scale of the biodiversity crisis laid bare
An eloquent requiem for nature risks leaving the reader feeling helpless rather than energized.
- Julia P. G. Jones
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News |
‘A big, big win’: plan to pay for wildlife conservation emerges at biodiversity summit
Amid fights over conservation funding, an agreement is reached for businesses to pay for profiting from digital genetic information taken from nature.
- Luke Taylor
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Career Feature |
Nine reasons we love our spooky, kooky model organisms
Researchers share their inspiration and tips for working with unusual plants and animals.
- Andy Tay
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal potential for natural regeneration in deforested tropical regions
An estimated area of 215 million hectares has the potential for natural forest regeneration across tropical forested countries and biomes, representing an above-ground carbon sequestration potential of 23.4 Gt C.
- Brooke A. Williams
- , Hawthorne L. Beyer
- & Renato Crouzeilles
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Correspondence |
European hedgehog’s ‘near threatened’ listing raises concerns for an iconic species
- Abigail Gazzard
- , David W. Macdonald
- & Sophie Lund Rasmussen
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Comment |
How biodiversity credits could help to conserve and restore nature
Biodiversity-credit markets could succeed in ways that, so far, carbon-credit markets have not — as long as the right rules of play are in place from the start.
- Alexandre Antonelli
- , Ximena Rueda
- & Pauline Nantongo Kalunda
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Career Q&A |
From industry to stay-at-home father to non-profit leadership
Joseph Ascalon made career decisions that kept family close. His work life flourished nonetheless.
- Natasha Vizcarra
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Comment |
Extreme fire seasons are looming — science can help us adapt
Not all wildfires can be averted, but data, models and collaborations can help to chart a course to a fire-resilient future.
- Jennifer K. Balch
- & A. Park Williams
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World View |
Is it time to give up trying to save coral reefs? My research says no
Scientists are increasingly arguing that coral-reef restoration is a lost cause — but done right, it can still benefit ecosystems and local communities.
- Lisa Carne
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal influence of soil texture on ecosystem water limitation
Through their effects on soil hydraulic properties, soil texture and sand content are shown to have broad implications for the terrestrial water cycle and carbon sink, and specific implications for vital ecosystems that are vulnerable to drought, especially with changing climate.
- F. J. P. Wankmüller
- , L. Delval
- & A. Carminati
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Article
| Open AccessCoral photosymbiosis on Mid-Devonian reefs
Nitrogen isotope evidence of Mid-Devonian photosymbiotic associations in certain types of corals suggests that autotrophic and heterotrophic corals co-existed on extinct reefs, as today, but in warmer oceans, indicating the current warming rate, not temperature, is causing coral bleaching.
- Jonathan Jung
- , Simon F. Zoppe
- & Alfredo Martínez-García
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News |
Mexican forest ‘relocated’ in attempt to save iconic monarch butterflies
High-altitude planting could buffer the trees, and the migratory butterflies that roost in them, against the effects of climate change.
- Alix Soliman
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News & Views |
Global conservation priorities for island plant diversity
How much of Earth’s plant diversity is distributed across islands, and how might this affect conservation efforts? It emerges that islands contain a disproportionately large share of global plant diversity and endangered species.
- Thomas J. Givnish
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Article |
Islands are key for protecting the world’s plant endemism
A standardized checklist of all known vascular plants shows the distribution of island native and endemic species, identifies their conservation status and highlights the need for actions to conserve them.
- Julian Schrader
- , Patrick Weigelt
- & Holger Kreft
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Comment |
Conservation policies must address an overlooked issue: how war affects the environment
The impacts of armed conflict on biodiversity have long been neglected. A United Nations meeting hosted by Colombia is a golden opportunity to begin changing that.
- Doug Weir
- , Sarah M. Durant
- & Sara Fernandes Elizalde
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Editorial |
Don’t rush rules for sharing digital genetic-sequence information
The draft text due to be discussed at the COP16 biodiversity meeting contains some 200 points that are still to be finalized. Rushing an agreement risks disrupting research without notably benefiting lower-income countries.
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Article |
High CO2 dampens then amplifies N-induced diversity loss over 24 years
A long-term experiment in grassland communities finds that, over 24 years, enriching nitrogen caused increasingly greater diversity loss when carbon dioxide levels were increased, raising further concerns over the impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity.
- Peter B. Reich
- , Neha Mohanbabu
- & Ethan E. Butler
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Article |
Terrestrial photosynthesis inferred from plant carbonyl sulfide uptake
An analysis of the effect of mesophyll diffusion on the dynamics of the uptake of carbonyl sulfide by plants estimates global contemporary gross primary productivity to be 157 (±8.5) petagrams of carbon per year.
- Jiameng Lai
- , Linda M. J. Kooijmans
- & Ying Sun
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Correspondence |
Conflict in New Caledonia endangers one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots
- Malik Oedin
- , Yvy Dombal
- & Tyrone Lavery
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News |
Famed lions’ full diet revealed by DNA — and humans were among their prey
Ancient DNA confirms that the nineteenth-century carnivores hunted humans and a variety of wild game, including a surprising animal.
- Emma Marris
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News & Views |
Salmon’s moveable feast of nutrients with a side order of contaminants
Migrating animals can bring food and contaminants to their destination. An assessment of Pacific salmon migrations from 1976 to 2015 reveals changes in the scale of this coupled transport and potential effects for consumers.
- Amanda L. Subalusky
- & Cornelia Twining
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Article
| Open AccessContinental-scale nutrient and contaminant delivery by Pacific salmon
Pacific salmon transport of nutrients and contaminants to freshwaters increased by 30% and 20%, respectively, between 1976 and 2015, an increase dominated by pink salmon, which had the highest nutrient-to-contaminant ratios.
- Jessica E. Brandt
- , Jeff S. Wesner
- & David M. Walters
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News Feature |
‘Cocaine of the seas’ — how a luxury food is wreaking ecological mayhem
A surging market for ‘fish maw’ is pushing threatened species to the brink. Researchers are trying to limit the damage.
- Jo Chandler
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Correspondence |
Unevidenced biodiversity claim should be abandoned — but biodiversity can be counted
- Robin Naidoo
- & Colby Loucks
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News & Views |
GPS tracking reveals how hares shape lynx populations
Lynx numbers ebb and flow as these predators hunt hares across Alaska, but analysis suggests that this population wave is mediated by survival rather than by how lynx disperse.
- Abigail Klopper
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News |
Why hasn’t deadly bird flu reached Australia yet?
Several theories explain why Oceania is the last region free of the H5N1 virus.
- Sara Phillips
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News |
Believe it or not, this lush landscape is Antarctica
Vegetation is spreading at an alarming rate in a place where temperatures are soaring.
- Alix Soliman
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Article
| Open AccessInducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi
A study presents an approach to establish and track a new endosymbiotic partnership by implanting bacteria in a non-host fungus and shows that stable inheritance of the implanted bacteria is possible with positive selection.
- Gabriel H. Giger
- , Chantal Ernst
- & Julia A. Vorholt
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Where I Work |
I track the movements of the mysterious storm bird
Federico De Pascalis works to protect European storm petrels from a changing world.
- Alexia Austin
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News |
How a ‘billion oysters’ could protect the New York coastline from climate change
Advocates argue that restoring the oyster reefs that once armoured shorelines could help to buffer against extreme storms.
- Alix Soliman
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Article
| Open AccessForest fire size amplifies postfire land surface warming
Climate warming has increased forest fire sizes, amplifying postfire summer warming, with broadleaf trees mitigating this effect; climate-smart forestry should increase broadleaf tree cover to manage future fire risks.
- Jie Zhao
- , Chao Yue
- & Sebastiaan Luyssaert
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Correspondence |
We can’t recreate ancient wilderness environments — but that’s not the point
- Justin Vaughn
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News & Views |
Mathematics helped Britain to get in touch with continental Europe a century ago
An undersea cable promises to improve Britain’s relationship with Europe, and a poet’s attempt at ornithology is debunked, in Nature’s weekly step back in time.
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World View |
We must train specialists in botany and zoology — or risk more devastating extinctions
Failure to fund education in taxonomy could derail efforts to support conservation in low- and middle-income countries.
- Dasheng Liu
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Article
| Open AccessDrosophila are hosts to the first described parasitoid wasp of adult flies
A study reports the discovery of a parasitoid wasp species that uses the adult stage of Drosophila fruit flies as its host.
- Logan D. Moore
- , Toluwanimi Chris Amuwa
- & Matthew J. Ballinger
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Nature Podcast |
Ancient DNA debunks Rapa Nui ‘ecological suicide’ theory
Study refutes claim that mismanagement of natural resources led to population crash — plus a tiny wasp that’s been found in an unexpected place.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Editorial |
How to support Indigenous Peoples on biodiversity: be rigorous with data
Questions surrounding an often-repeated statistic about Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity show that researchers should take more care when sourcing facts.
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