Microbiome-pathogen interactions are increasingly recognised as an important element of host immunity. While these host-level interactions will have consequences for community disease dynamics, the factors which influence host microbiomes at larger scales are poorly understood. We here describe landscape scale pathogen-microbiome associations within the context of post-epizootic amphibian chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the panzootic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We undertook a survey of Neotropical amphibians across altitudinal gradients in Ecuador ~30 years following the...

Climate change may have dramatic consequences for communities through both direct effects of peak temperatures upon individual species and through interspecific mismatches in thermal sensitivities of interacting organisms which mediate changes in interspecific interactions (i.e. predation). Despite this, there is a paucity of information upon the patterns of spatial physiological sensitivity of interacting species (at both landscape and local scales) which could ultimately influence geographical variation in the effects of climate change upon community processes....

Aim: Pleistocene (2.58 Ma – 11.7 ka) climatic fluctuations have shaped intraspecific genetic patterns worldwide; however, their manifestation in many regions remains unknown. In order to determine the impact of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on the tropical rain forests of western Ecuador, we explored the evolutionary history of the endemic palm Phytelephas aequatorialis. Location: Western Ecuador, northwestern South America. Taxon: Phytelephas aequatorialis (Arecaceae). Methods: 176 nuclear genes were sequenced in 91 individuals for phylogenomic and population...

Regrowing secondary forests dominate tropical regions today, and a mechanistic understanding of their recovery dynamics provides important insights for conservation. In particular, land-use legacy effects on the fauna have rarely been investigated. One of the most ecologically dominant and functionally important animal groups in tropical forests are ants. Here, we investigated the recovery of ant communities in a forest – agricultural habitat mosaic in the Ecuadorian Chocó region. We used a replicated chronosequence of previously...