Ecology

Cardenolide toxin diversity impacts monarch butterfly growth and sequestration

1. Anurag A. Agrawal
2. Amy P. Hastings
3. Paola Rubiano-Buitrago

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study shows that different forms and mixtures of cardenolide toxins in tropical milkweed, especially nitrogen- and sulfur-containing types, change how monarch caterpillars eat, grow, and store these chemicals under laboratory conditions. It provides solid evidence to demonstrate that chemical diversity within a single group of plant toxins (cardenolides) can have combined effects on even highly specialized herbivores that are different from what one would expect from each toxin alone. However, as all experiments used leaf-disc assays with fixed "natural" toxin ratios and only one adapted herbivore species, tests on living plants, other mixture designs, and non-adapted herbivores would make the broader conclusions stronger.

Reviewed by eLife

Disentangling urbanisation, climate effects and their interaction on ornamental colourations

1. Lisa Sandmeyer
2. David López-Idiáquez
3. Amélie Fargevieille
4. Pablo Giovannini
5. Samuel Perret
6. Maria Del Rey
7. Anne Charmantier
8. Claire Doutrelant
9. Arnaud Grégoire

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

The Plasmodium transmission-blocking symbiont, Microsporidia MB , is vertically transmitted through Anopheles arabiensis germline stem cells

1. Thomas O. Onchuru
2. Edward E. Makhulu
3. Purity C. Ronnie
4. Stancy Mandere
5. Fidel G. Otieno
6. Joseph Gichuhi
7. Jeremy K. Herren

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

Over the hills and far away: linking landscape factors with cavity excavation on living forest trees by the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius, L. 1758)

1. Cedric Cabrera
2. Jean-Matthieu Monnet
3. Jean-Jacques Boutteaux
4. Baptiste Doutau
5. Pascal Denis
6. Yoan Paillet

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Comparative risk-assessment of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 viruses spread in French broiler and layer sectors

1. Claire Hautefeuille
2. Facundo Muñoz
3. Gwenaëlle Dauphin
4. Mathilde Paul
5. Marisa Peyre
6. Flavie Goutard

Reviewed by Peer Community in Animal Science

Global risk mapping of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 and H5Nx in the light of epidemic episodes occurring from 2020 onward

1. Marie-Cécile Dupas
2. Maria F Vincenti-Gonzalez
3. Madhur Dhingra
4. Claire Guinat
5. Timothée Vergne
6. William Wint
7. Guy Hendrickx
8. Cedric Marsboom
9. Marius Gilbert
10. Simon Dellicour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This global study compares environmental niche model outputs of avian influenza pathogen niche constructed for two distinct periods, and uses differences between those outputs to suggest that the changed case numbers and distribution relate to intensification of chicken and duck farming, and extensive cultivation. While a useful update to existing niche models of highly pathogenic avian influenza, the justification for the use of environmental niche models to explore land cover change as a driver of changed case epidemiology is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Microbial consortia in salt marsh sediments are sequentially buried over millennia and genomic complementarity analysis indicates an important role in complex carbon decomposition

1. Joseph H Vineis
2. Ashley N Bulseco
3. Zoe G Cardon
4. Jennifer L Bowen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study provides a valuable genome-centric characterization of microbial communities across deep sediment cores from a Spartina patens salt marsh. The study provides claims on the metabolic capabilities of the deep sediment microbiome as well as on a burial microbial assembly process and functional complementarity at depth. However, some of these claims remain incomplete and would benefit from further supporting evidence. Overall, this work will be of interest to microbial ecologists working on wetlands.

Reviewed by eLife

Spatio-temporal dynamics of attacks around deaths of wolves: A statistical assessment of lethal control efficiency in France

1. Oksana Grente
2. Thomas Opitz
3. Christophe Duchamp
4. Nolwenn Drouet-Hoguet
5. Simon Chamaillé-Jammes
6. Olivier Gimenez

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Assessing plant phenological changes based on drivers of spring phenology

1. Yong Jiang
2. Stephen J Mayor
3. Xiuli Chu
4. Xiaoqi Ye
5. Rongzhou Man
6. Jing Tao
7. Qing-Lai Dang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study introduces a valuable new metric-phenological lag-to help partition the drivers of observed versus expected shifts in spring phenology under climate warming. The conceptual framework is clearly presented and supported by an extensive dataset, and the revisions have improved the manuscript, though some concerns-particularly regarding uncertainty quantification, spatial analysis, and modeling assumptions-remain only partially addressed. The strength of evidence is generally solid, but further analysis would help to validate the study's conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Climate change and reseeding shape richness-evenness relationships in a subalpine grassland experiment

1. Lina K. Mühlbauer
2. Andreas Klingler
3. Lukas Gaier
4. Andreas Schaumberger
5. Adam Thomas Clark

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology