1. There is a fundamental trade-off between leaf traits associated with either resource acquisition or resource conservation. This gradient of trait variation, called the economics spectrum also applies to fine roots but whether it is consistent for coarse roots or at the plant community level remains untested. 2. We measured a set of morphological and chemical root traits at a community level (functional parameters; FP) in 20 plant communities located along land-use intensity gradients and...

The Guianas have often been proposed as a forest refugium; however, this view has received little testing. Studies of population genetics of forest taxa suggest that the central part of French Guiana remained forested, while the southern part (currently forested) may have harboured more open vegetation. Insights into the population structure of species restricted to non-forested habitats can help test this hypothesis. Using six microsatellite loci, we investigated the population genetics of French Guianan accessions...

Current views about the impact of Wolbachia on Plasmodium infections are almost entirely based on data regarding artificially transfected mosquitoes. This work has shown that Wolbachia reduces the intensity of Plasmodium infections in mosquitoes, raising the exciting possibility of using Wolbachia to control or limit the spread of malaria. Whether natural Wolbachia infections have the same parasite-inhibiting properties is not yet clear. Wolbachia–mosquito combinations with a long evolutionary history are, however, key for understanding what...

There are two zip files with the data and R scripts used in the article "Maestre, F. T. et al. 2022. Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands. Science 378, 915–920".
The file "Main_Data_code.zip" contains the data and R code used in the main analyses of the paper. These data also include the location and major environmental characteristics of the plots surveyed.
The file "Livestock_data_code.zip" contains the data and R code used in...

Background: Recent studies have described a low occurrence of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in Latin America. Significant differences in ALS risk have been reported among ethnic populations in the region. We conducted a meta-analysis using population-based data to describe ALS mortality rates in Latin America. We explored sources of heterogeneity among key covariates. Methods: National mortality registries from Latin American countries were searched to identify ALS deaths according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9:...

The genus Adenodaphne is currently considered endemic to New Caledonia, but its distinction from Litsea is questionable based on morphological similarity. An earlier phylogenetic analysis (ITS) including one species of Adenodaphne and two Asian species of Litsea did support their close relationship but did not permit resolution of their generic boundary. We sampled the four species of Adenodaphne currently recognized (11 accessions) and 11 of the 13 endemic species of Litsea currently recognized, plus one...

Predators may eavesdrop on their prey using innate signals of varying nature. In regards to social prey, most of the prey signals are derived from social communication and may therefore be highly complex. The most efficient predators select signals that provide the highest benefits. Here, we showed the use of eusocial prey signals by the termite-raiding ant Odontoponera transversa. O. transversa selected the trail pheromone of termites as kairomone in several species of fungus-growing termites...

Phenotypic changes in plants can be observed along many environmental gradients and are determined by both environmental and genetic factors. The identification of alleles associated with phenotypic variations is a rapidly developing area of research. We studied the genetic basis of phenotypic variations in 11 populations of wild pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) on two North-South aridity gradients, one in Niger and one in Mali. Most of the 11 phenotypic traits assessed in a common garden...

Amborella trichopoda Baill. (Amborellaceae, Amborellales), the sole living member of the sister group to all other extant Angiosperms, is endemic to New Caledonia. We addressed the intraspecific phylogeography of Amborella by investigating whether its present population genetic structure could be related to its current and past habitats. We found moderate range-wide genetic diversity based on nuclear microsatellite data, and detected four well-differentiated, geographically distinct genetic groups using Bayesian clustering analyses. We modeled the ecological niche...

Amidst global environmental changes, predicting species responses to future environments is a critical challenge for preserving biodiversity and associated human benefits. We explored the original idea that coral competitive performances, the ability of corals to preempt ecological space on the reef through territorial warfare, serve as indicators of species’ ecological niches and environmental windows, and therefore, responses to future environments. Our surveys indicated that coral performances varied with taxonomic-identity, size, and position along environmental gradients,...

The assessment of population vulnerability under climate change is crucial for planning conservation as well as for ensuring food security. Coffea canephora is, in its native habitat, an understory tree that is mainly distributed in the lowland rainforests of tropical Africa. Also known as Robusta, its commercial value constitutes a significant revenue for many human populations in tropical countries. Comparing ecological and genomic vulnerabilities within the species’ native range can provide valuable insights about habitat...

With 10,000 species, Magnoliidae are the largest clade of flowering plants outside monocots and eudicots. Despite an ancient and rich fossil history, the tempo and mode of diversification of Magnoliidae remain poorly known. Using a molecular data set of 12 markers and 220 species (representing >75% of genera in Magnoliidae) and six robust, internal fossil age constraints, we estimate divergence times and significant shifts of diversification across the clade. In addition, we test the sensitivity...

AIM: Palms (Arecaceae/Palmae) are a model group for evolutionary studies in the tropics. Family-wide data on taxonomy, phylogenetics and distribution are now available, but a general framework of palm evolution is still lacking. The overall aim of this study, published in two companion papers, is to seek evolutionary explanations for the geographical distribution of palm lineages and species diversity patterns at global and regional levels. In this first paper we undertake a detailed analysis of...

Hosts have evolved two distinct defence strategies against parasites: resistance (which prevents infection or limit parasite growth) and tolerance (which alleviates the fitness consequences of infection). However, heritable variation in resistance and tolerance and the genetic correlation between these two traits have rarely been characterized in wild host populations. Here, we estimate these parameters for both traits in Leuciscus burdigalensis, a freshwater fish parasitized by Tracheliastes polycolpus. We used a genetic database to construct a...

Asexual queen succession (AQS), in which workers, soldiers and dispersing reproductives are produced sexually while numerous non-dispersing queens arise through thelytokous parthenogenesis, has recently been described in three species of lower termites of the genus Reticulitermes. Here, we show that AQS is not an oddity restricted to a single genus of lower termites, but a more widespread strategy occurring also in the most advanced termite group, the higher termites (Termitidae). We analysed the genetic structure...

Ecosystems are being stressed by climate change, but few studies have tested food web responses to changes in precipitation patterns and the consequences to ecosystem function. Fewer still have considered whether results from one geographic region can be applied to other regions, given the degree of community change over large biogeographic gradients. We assembled, in one field site, three types of macroinvertebrate communities within water-filled bromeliads. Two represented food webs containing both a fast filter...

Allele_scores_Ceroxylon_quindiuense_complexThese are allele scores (diploid) for populations studied in cited articlegenepop_Cquindicomplex2.txt

1. Reef sharks are declining worldwide under ever increasing fishing pressure with potential consequences on ecosystem functioning. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are currently one of the management tools to counteract the pervasive impacts of fishing. However, MPAs in which reef sharks are abundant tend to be located in remote and underexploited areas preventing a fair assessment of management effectiveness beyond remoteness from human activities. 2. Here we determine the conditions under which MPAs can effectively...

The role of speciation processes in shaping current biodiversity patterns represents a major scientific question for ecologists and biogeographers. Hence, numerous methods have been developed to determine the geography of speciation based on co-occurrence between sister-species. Most of these methods rely on the correlation between divergence time and several metrics based on the geographic ranges of sister-taxa (i.e. overlap, asymmetry). The relationship between divergence time and these metrics has scarcely been examined in a spatial...

This dataset comprises a map of groundwater recharge for Africa and a database of the 134 observations used to generate the map. The map shows long term average annual groundwater recharge in mm per annum relevant to the period 1970 to 2020. It is in the form of a GIS shapefile and is available as a layer package for ESRI and also as a georeferenced TIFF and BIL file for easy exchange with other software....

Background: Recent studies have described a low occurrence of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in Latin America. Significant differences in ALS risk have been reported among ethnic populations in the region. We conducted a meta-analysis using population-based data to describe ALS mortality rates in Latin America. We explored sources of heterogeneity among key covariates. Methods: National mortality registries from Latin American countries were searched to identify ALS deaths according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9:...

Background: Dioecious plants generally display sexual dimorphism in male and female floral traits, potentially attracting slightly different pollinator communities. The sharing of common floral visitors between male and female flowers and their timing of visits to both sexes is of critical importance to ensure plant's reproductive success. Palm inflorescences are visited by abundant and diverse insect communities, yet the temporal patterns of insect visits on both sexes remain poorly known. Results: We report 59 morphospecies...

There are two zip files with the data and R scripts used in the article "Maestre, F. T. et al. 2022. Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands. Science 378, 915–920".
The file "Main_Data_code.zip" contains the data and R code used in the main analyses of the paper. These data also include the location and major environmental characteristics of the plots surveyed.
The file "Livestock_data_code.zip" contains the data and R code used in...

Understanding how divergent selection generates adaptive phenotypic and population diversification provides a mechanistic explanation of speciation in recently separated species pairs. Toward this goal, we sought ecological gradients of divergence between the cryptic malaria vectors Anopheles coluzzii and An. gambiae, and then looked for a physiological trait that may underlie such divergence. Using a large set of occurrence records and eco-geographical information, we built a distribution model to predict the predominance of the two species...

Current population genetic models fail to cope with genetic differentiation for species with large, contiguous and heterogeneous distribution. We show that in such a case, genetic differentiation can be predicted at equilibrium by circuit theory, where conductance corresponds to abundance in species distribution models (SDM). Circuit-SDM approach was used for the phylogeographic study of the lepidopteran cereal stemborer Busseola fusca Füller (Noctuidae) across sub-Saharan Africa. Species abundance was surveyed across its distribution range. SDM models...