Ecology

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

An ecological network approach for detecting and validating influential organisms for rice growth

1. Masayuki Ushio
2. Hiroki Saito
3. Motoaki Tojo
4. Atsushi J Nagano

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  There is a tremendous need to increase agricultural productivity with means that are both practical and efficient. Drawing on data from variable field environments, this important study provides a theoretical framework for the identification of new factors with presumed relevance for crop growth. This framework can be applied in the context of both agricultural and ecological studies. There is solid evidence for several of the authors' claims, but the impact of the study is limited due to missing functional validation of candidate species in the field. Plant biologists and ecologists working in agricultural and natural environments will find the work interesting.

Reviewed by eLife

Unprecedented yet gradual nature of first millennium CE intercontinental crop plant dispersal revealed in ancient Negev desert refuse

1. Daniel Fuks
2. Yoel Melamed
3. Dafna Langgut
4. Tali Erickson-Gini
5. Yotam Tepper
6. Guy Bar-Oz
7. Ehud Weiss

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The study presents important findings on the timing and movement of crops in the Near East. The authors provide convincing data supporting a predominant contribution of Roman Agricultural Diffusion to the spread of a number of cultigens in the region. The work will be of interest to those thinking about the timing and movement of the diffusion of agricultural crops post-domestication.

Reviewed by eLife

Resource-combining costs of being a diet generalist in the super-generalist protist predator Dictyostelium discoideum

1. P. M. Shreenidhi
2. Debra A. Brock
3. Rachel I. McCabe
4. Joan E. Strassmann
5. David C. Queller

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Five years later, with double the demographic data, naked mole-rat mortality rates continue to defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age

1. J. Graham Ruby
2. Megan Smith
3. Rochelle Buffenstein

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study aims to characterize patterns of demographic aging in naked mole rats by quantifying mortality rates in a captive colony, up to approximately the median age of death. The study system is a fascinating case of unusual longevity and physiology in mammals, but because of limited sampling at older ages and missing analyses, the evidence for the main conclusion – that naked mole rats do not experience actuarial senescence – is incomplete for younger animals and inadequate for older animals. The work nevertheless provides data of interest to biodemographers and biomedical researchers interested in naked mole rats as a model for aging.

Reviewed by eLife