1. A multi-species approach to habitat restoration may boost the key processes (e.g. recruitment) that enable foundation species to overcome barriers to recovery. Natural systems tend to be formed by co-occurring foundation species whose synergy drives ecological productivity and resilience beyond that of single foundation species. Yet, restoration remains primarily a single-species focus enterprise where positive interactions are seldom incorporated into planning. A multi-species approach that prioritises species combinations to create emergent properties for their...

1. Hundreds of Proteaceae species in Australia and South Africa typically grow on phosphorus (P)-impoverished soils, exhibiting a carboxylate-releasing P-mobilising strategy. In the Southwest Australian Biodiversity Hotspot, two Xylomelum (Proteaceae) species are widely distributed, but restricted within that distribution. 2. We grew X. occidentale in hydroponics at 1 μM P. Leaves, seeds, rhizosheath and bulk soil were collected in natural habitats. 3. Xylomelum occidentale did not produce functional cluster roots and occupied soils that are...

A detailed understanding of population genetics in invasive populations helps us to identify drivers of successful alien introductions. Here, we investigate putative signals of selection in Australian populations of invasive common starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, and seek to understand how these have been influenced by introduction history. We used reduced representation sequencing to determine population structure, and identify Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that are putatively under selection. We found that since their introduction into Australia, starling...

Context European forests are expanding and becoming denser following the widespread abandonment of farmland and rural areas. Yet, little is known about the goods and services that spontaneous forest regrowth provide to people. Aims We assessed the changes in nature’s contributions to people (NCP) from spontaneous forest regrowth, i.e. forest expansion and densification, in South-West Europe. Methods We investigated 65 forest plots in four different landscapes with contrasting ecological and societal contexts. Two landscapes are...

For molecular insect identification, amplicon sequencing methods are recommended because they offer a cost effective approach for targeting small sets of informative genes from multiple samples. In this context, high-throughput multilocus amplicon sequencing has been achieved using the MiSeq Illumina sequencing platform. However, this approach generates short gene fragments of less than 500 bp, which then have to be overlapped using bioinformatics to achieve longer sequence lengths. This increases the risk of generating chimeric sequences...

Urbanization exposes species to novel environments and selection pressures that may change morphological traits within a population. We investigated how the shape and size of crania and mandibles changed over time within a population of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in Manhattan, New York, USA, a highly urbanized environment. We measured 3D landmarks on the cranium and mandible of 62 adult individuals sampled in the 1890s and 2010s. Static allometry explained approximately 22% of shape...

Photosynthetic carbon (C) allocated below-ground can be shared with mycorrhizal fungi in exchange for nutrients, but also added into soil as rhizodeposits that potentially increases plant nutrient supply by supporting microbial nutrient mineralization from organic matter. How water and nitrogen (N) availabilities affect plant C allocation to the rhizosphere, including both arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) symbionts and rhizodeposits, remains largely unknown. We used a 13CO2 pulse labelling experiment to assess effects of drought and N...

Background Frailty is a major health issue which impacts the life of older people, posing a significant challenge to the health system. One of the key emerging areas is the development of frailty interventions to halt or reverse the progression of the condition. In many countries, economic evidence is required to inform public funding decisions for such interventions, and cost-effectiveness models are needed to estimate long-term costs and effects. Such models should capture current clinical...

Organismal interactions drive the accumulation of diversity by influencing species ranges, morphology, and behavior. Interactions vary from agonistic to cooperative and should result in predictable patterns in trait and range evolution. However, despite a conceptual understanding of these processes, they have been difficult to model, particularly on macroevolutionary timescales and across broad geographic spaces. Here we investigate the influence of biotic interactions on trait evolution and community assembly in monitor lizards (Varanus). Monitors are an...

Among vertebrates, placental mammals are particularly variable in the covariance between cranial shape and body size (allometry), with rodents a major exception. Australian murid rodents allow an assessment of the cause of this anomaly because they radiated on an ecologically diverse continent notably lacking other terrestrial placentals. Here we use 3D geometric morphometrics to quantify species-level and evolutionary allometries in 38 species (317 crania) from all Australian murid genera. We ask if ecological opportunity resulted...

Premise: Within closed canopy forests, vertical gradients of light and atmospheric CO 2 drive variations in leaf carbon isotope ratios, leaf mass per area (LMA), and the micromorphology of leaf epidermal cells. Variations in such traits observed in preserved or fossilized leaves could enable inferences of past forest canopy closure and the habitat of individual taxa. However, as yet no calibration study has examined how multiple traits in combination reflect position within a modern closed...

Wallace’s Line demarcates the transition between the differentiated regional faunas of Asia and Australia. However, while patterns of biotic differentiation across these two continental landmasses and the intervening island groups (“Wallacea”) have been extensively studied, patterns of long-term dispersal and diversification across this region are less well understood. Frogmouths (Aves: Podargidae) are a relictual family of large nocturnal birds represented by three extant genera occurring respectively in Asia, “Sahul” (Australia and New Guinea), and the...

Background Frailty is a major health issue which impacts the life of older people, posing a significant challenge to the health system. One of the key emerging areas is the development of frailty interventions to halt or reverse the progression of the condition. In many countries, economic evidence is required to inform public funding decisions for such interventions, and cost-effectiveness models are needed to estimate long-term costs and effects. Such models should capture current clinical...

The size of plant stomata (adjustable pores that determine uptake of CO2 and loss of water from leaves) is considered to be evolutionarily important. This study uses fossils from the major southern hemisphere family Proteaceae to test whether stomatal cell size responded to Cenozoic climate change. We measured the length and abundance of guard cells (the cells forming stomata), the area of epidermal pavement cells, stomatal index and maximum stomatal conductance from a comprehensive sample...

The solubility of Bi3+ in aqueous solution is an important factor that limits the fabrication of high quality Bi2S3 thin films. In order to find a low–cost method to manufacture high quality Bi2S3 thin films, we are reporting the preparation of the Bi2S3 thin films based on pulse-plating method in this paper for the first time. The nano-bismuth particles were obtained by electroplating on fluorine doped SnO2 (FTO) coated conducting glass substrates with saturated bismuth...

Objective: Determining the genetic basis of speech disorders provides insight into the neurobiology of human communication. Despite intensive investigation over the past two decades, the etiology of most children with speech disorder remains unexplained. Here we searched for a genetic etiology in children with severe speech disorder, specifically childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Methods: Precise phenotyping together with research genome or exome analysis were performed on children referred with a primary diagnosis of CAS, as...

Trilobites are one of the most diverse and abundant fossil groups from the early Palaeozoic, and as such are useful for answering important questions about early animal evolution, including developmental processes. Ontogenetic information for a large number of trilobite species has been published, but cases where multiple articulated specimens are known across the full range of developmental stages are rare. The early Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) Emu Bay Shale biota from Kangaroo Island (South...

Most subterranean animals are assumed to have evolved from surface ancestors following colonisation of a cave system, however very few studies have raised the possibility of ‘subterranean speciation’ in underground habitats (i.e. obligate cave-dwelling organisms (troglobionts) descended from troglobiotic ancestors). Numerous endemic subterranean diving beetle species from spatially-discrete calcrete aquifers in Western Australia (stygobionts) have evolved independently from surface ancestors; however, several cases of sympatric sister species raises the possibility of subterranean speciation. We tested...

The diversification dynamics of the Australian temperate flora remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate whether differences in plant richness in the southwest Australian biodiversity hotspot (SWA) and southeast (SEA) regions of the Australian continent can be attributed to higher net diversification, more time for species accumulation, or both. We assembled dated molecular phylogenies for the 21 most species-rich flowering plant families found across mesic temperate Australia, encompassing both SWA and SEA regions, and applied a...

Individual hosts vary substantially in their parasite loads. However, whether individual hosts have consistently different loads remains uncertain. If so, hosts that have consistently high parasite loads may serve as key reservoirs or super-spreaders. Thus, identifying whether individuals persistently differ in their parasitism and the factors that explain these patterns constitute important issues for disease ecology and management. To investigate these topics, we examined nine years of tick counts in a wild population of sleepy...

Island biogeography explores how biodiversity in island ecosystems arises and is maintained. The topographical complexity of islands can drive speciation by providing a diversity of niches that promote adaptive radiation and speciation. However, recent studies have argued that phylogenetic niche conservatism, combined with topographical complexity and climate change, could also promote speciation if populations are episodically fragmented into climate refugia that enable allopatric speciation. Adaptive radiation and phylogenetic niche conservatism therefore both predict that topographical...

A recent study argued that coalescent-based models of species delimitation mostly delineate population structure not species, and called for the validation of candidate species using biological information additional to the genetic information, such as phenotypic or ecological data. Here we introduce a framework to interrogate genomic datasets and coalescent-based species trees for the presence of candidate species in situations where additional biological data are unavailable, unobtainable, or uninformative. For de novo genomic studies of species...

Since its introduction to control overabundant alien rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the highly virulent Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV) has caused regular annual disease outbreaks in Australian rabbit populations. Although initially reducing rabbit abundance by 60%, continent-wide, experimental evidence has since indicated increased genetic resistance in wild rabbits that have experienced RHDV-driven selection. To identify genetic adaptations, which explain the increased resistance to this biocontrol virus, we investigated genome-wide SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) allele frequency changes...