Ecology

Identification of microbial exopolymer producers in sandy and muddy intertidal sediments by compound-specific isotope analysis

1. Cédric Hubas
2. Julie Gaubert-Boussarie
3. An-Sofie D’Hondt
4. Bruno Jesus
5. Dominique Lamy
6. Vona Meleder
7. Antoine Prins
8. Philippe Rosa
9. Willem Stock
10. Koen Sabbe

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Integrating biodiversity assessments into local conservation planning: the importance of assessing suitable data sources

1. Thibaut Ferraille
2. Christian Kerbiriou
3. Charlotte Bigard
4. Fabien Claireau
5. John D. Thompson

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Seasonality of host-seeking Ixodes ricinus nymph abundance in relation to climate

1. Thierry Hoch
2. Aurélien Madouasse
3. Maude Jacquot
4. Phrutsamon Wongnak
5. Fréderic Beugnet
6. Laure Bournez
7. Jean-François Cosson
8. Frédéric Huard
9. Sara Moutailler
10. Olivier Plantard
11. Valérie Poux
12. Magalie René-Martellet
13. Muriel Vayssier-Taussat
14. Hélène Verheyden
15. Gwenaël Vourc’h
16. Karine Chalvet-Monfray
17. Albert Agoulon

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Meta-analysis reveals glucocorticoid levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, not ‘stress’

1. Blanca Jimeno
2. Simon Verhulst

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work presents a fundamental meta-analysis on the causes of glucocorticoid variations in birds and mammals. It provides convincing evidence that an increase in metabolic rates increases glucocorticoid concentrations. The work will be of broad interest to animal physiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Bloodmeal metabarcoding of the argasid tick ( Ornithodoros turicata Dugès) reveals extensive vector-host associations

1. Sujata Balasubramanian
2. Rachel E. Busselman
3. Nadia Fernandez-Santos
4. Andy Grunwald
5. Nicholas Wolff
6. Nicholas Hathaway
7. Andrew Hillhouse
8. Jeffrey A. Bailey
9. Pete D. Teel
10. Francisco C. Ferreira
11. Sarah A. Hamer
12. Gabriel L. Hamer

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Exploring natural odour landscapes: A case study with implications for human-biting insects

1. Jessica L. Zung
2. Sumer M. Kotb
3. Carolyn S. McBride

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript provides a useful qualitative analysis of hair extracts from mammals, with the goal of understanding how mosquitoes encode the chemicals in the odor. The data were collected using standard spectrometric approaches in the field of chemical ecology, but they suffer from artifacts associated with the sampling approach and analyses, and are limited in their replicates and sampling which may prevent inter-species comparisons at this point. Without additional analysis, the evidence supporting the claims currently remains unfortunately incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Drivers of species knowledge across the tree of life

1. Stefano Mammola
2. Martino Adamo
3. Dragan Antić
4. Jacopo Calevo
5. Tommaso Cancellario
6. Pedro Cardoso
7. Dan Chamberlain
8. Matteo Chialva
9. Furkan Durucan
10. Diego Fontaneto
11. Duarte Goncalves
12. Alejandro Martínez
13. Luca Santini
14. Iñigo Rubio-Lopez
15. Ronaldo Sousa
16. David Villegas-Rios
17. Aida Verdes
18. Ricardo A Correia

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  With a carefully collected dataset and compelling analyses, this fundamental manuscript demonstrates detailed links between societal and academic interest and natural species across the globe. In doing so, the authors reveal biases that may be diminishing our abilities to care for the species on our planet that may need our care the most. While some parts of this manuscript reflect previously published work, the authors are commended for putting all the puzzle pieces together for the first time. Their work highlights our uneven knowledge of biodiversity and its potential causes.

Reviewed by eLife

Linking intrinsic scales of ecological processes to characteristic scales of biodiversity and functioning patterns

1. Yuval R. Zelnik
2. Matthieu Barbier
3. David W. Shanafelt
4. Michel Loreau
5. Rachel M. Germain

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Provision of essential resources as a persistence strategy in food webs

1. Michael Raatz

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

100 years of anthropogenic impact causes changes in freshwater functional biodiversity

1. Niamh Eastwood
2. Jiarui Zhou
3. Romain Derelle
4. Mohamed Abou-Elwafa Abdallah
5. William A Stubbings
6. Yunlu Jia
7. Sarah E Crawford
8. Thomas A Davidson
9. John K Colbourne
10. Simon Creer
11. Holly Bik
12. Henner Hollert
13. Luisa Orsini

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study advances the analytic toolset and understanding of long-term series of biological (freshwater) communities, and the impact of humans on these. The authors highlight the value of including not only spatiotemporal scales in biodiversity assessments but also some of the possible drivers of biodiversity loss. Analyzing their joint contribution as environmental stressors, the authors provide compelling evidence that ecosystem assessment methods currently used by environmental regulators throughout Europe are not fit-for-purpose, and they identify several alternatives, more robust indicators of freshwater ecosystem health. The work is timely and will be of interest to ecologists, modelers and global warming scientists in general.

Reviewed by eLife