Ecology

Diagnosis of planktonic trophic network dynamics with sharp qualitative changes

1. Cedric Gaucherel
2. Stolian Fayolle
3. Raphael Savelli
4. Olivier Philippine
5. Franck Pommereau
6. Christine Dupuy

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Mt or not Mt: Temporal variation in detection probability in spatial capture-recapture and occupancy models

1. Rahel Sollmann

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

The push–pull intercrop Desmodium does not repel, but intercepts and kills pests

1. Anna L Erdei
2. Aneth B David
3. Eleni C Savvidou
4. Vaida Džemedžionaitė
5. Advaith Chakravarthy
6. Béla P Molnár
7. Teun Dekker

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study addresses both commonly accepted and alternative hypotheses for the mechanism by which an intercrop supports pest control in push-pull agriculture, a promising and broadly recognized approach for sustainable intensification. The findings address a widely recognized gap in data on the mechanism underlying push-pull systems and thus can be important for work on pest control in agroecology as well as plant-herbivore interactions more generally. The support of claims is solid, combining observations of several different mechanistic aspects in an uncommonly broad range of relevant environments with clear reasoning regarding experimental design, but also using some non-standard approaches that are not as well explained, complicating comparisons to the current state of the art.

Reviewed by eLife

Investigating macroecological patterns in coarse-grained microbial communities using the stochastic logistic model of growth

1. William R Shoemaker
2. Jacopo Grilli

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study considers empirical macroecological patterns in microbiome data across multiple taxonomic scales. The work convincingly shows that the Stochastic Logistic Growth model is a more appropriate choice of null model than the neutral theory of biodiversity. The work will be of particular interest to microbial ecologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular mechanisms of microbiome modulation by the eukaryotic secondary metabolite azelaic acid

1. Ahmed A Shibl
2. Michael A Ochsenkühn
3. Amin R Mohamed
4. Ashley Isaac
5. Lisa SY Coe
6. Yejie Yun
7. Grzegorz Skrzypek
8. Jean-Baptiste Raina
9. Justin R Seymour
10. Ahmed J Afzal
11. Shady A Amin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents valuable findings on the contrasting responses of two bacteria to the phytoplankton-derived compound azelaic acid. Metabolomics and transcriptomics evidence convincingly shows the assimilation pathway in one marine bacterium and a stress response in a second bacterium. The study provides evidence that azelaic acid can alter marine microbial community structure in mesocosm experiments, though the mechanisms underlying this shift in community structure remain to be explored in future studies.

Reviewed by eLife

Transcriptomic responses of sponge holobionts to in situ, seasonal anoxia and hypoxia

1. Brian W. Strehlow
2. Astrid Schuster
3. Warren R. Francis
4. Lisa Eckford-Soper
5. Beate Kraft
6. Rob McAllen
7. Ronni Nielsen
8. Susanne Mandrup
9. Donald E. Canfield

Reviewed by Peer Community In Zoology

Small deviations in kinematics and body form dictate muscle performances in the finely tuned avian downstroke

1. Marc E Deetjen
2. Diana D Chin
3. Ashley M Heers
4. Bret W Tobalske
5. David Lentink

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines experiments and mathematical modelling to enhance our understanding of the interplay between the two flight muscles in birds during slow flight. The evidence for the findings is compelling, derived from new methods for measuring wing shape and force production combined with previously validated methods in muscle physiology. This work will be of broad interest to comparative biomechanists.

Reviewed by eLife

Modeling Tick Populations: An Ecological Test Case for Gradient Boosted Trees

1. William Manley
2. Tam Tran
3. Melissa Prusinski
4. Dustin Brisson

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Consistent individual positions within roosts in Spix’s disc-winged bats

1. Giada Giacomini
2. Silvia Chaves-Ramírez
3. H. Andrés Hernández-Pinsón
4. José Pablo Barrantes
5. Gloriana Chaverri

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Pathogen community composition and co-infection patterns in a wild community of rodents

1. Jessica L. Abbate
2. Maxime Galan
3. Maria Razzauti
4. Tarja Sironen
5. Liina Voutilainen
6. Heikki Henttonen
7. Patrick Gasqui
8. Jean-François Cosson
9. Nathalie Charbonnel

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology