Ecology

Mineral fertilization reduces the drought resistance of soil multifunctionality in a mountain grassland system through plant-soil interactions

1. Gabin Piton
2. Arnaud Foulquier
3. Lionel Bernard
4. Aurelie Bonin
5. Thomas Pommier
6. Sandra Lavorel
7. Roberto Geremia
8. Jean Christophe Clement

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Pesticide-induced resurgence in brown planthopper is mediated by action on a suite of genes that promote juvenile hormone biosynthesis and female fecundity

1. Yang Gao
2. Shao-Cong Su
3. Ji-Yang Xing
4. Zhao-Yu Liu
5. Dick R Nässel
6. Chris Bass
7. Cong-Fen Gao
8. Shun-Fan Wu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful manuscript reports mechanisms behind the increase in fecundity in response to sub-lethal doses of pesticides in the crop pest, the brown plant hopper. The authors hypothesize that the pesticide works by inducing the JH titer, which through the JH signaling pathway induces egg development. Evidence for this is, however, incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Drivers of plant-associated invertebrate community structure in West-European coastal dunes

1. Ruben Van De Walle
2. Maxime Dahirel
3. Ward Langeraert
4. Dries Benoit
5. Pieter Vantieghem
6. Martijn L. Vandegehuchte
7. François Massol
8. Dries Bonte

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Multidimensionality of tree communities structure host-parasitoid networks and their phylogenetic composition

1. Ming-Qiang Wang
2. Shi-Kun Guo
3. Peng-Fei Guo
4. Juan-Juan Yang
5. Guo-Ai Chen
6. Douglas Chesters
7. Michael C Orr
8. Ze-Qing Niu
9. Michael Staab
10. Jing-Ting Chen
11. Yi Li
12. Qing-Song Zhou
13. Felix Fornoff
14. Xiaoyu Shi
15. Shan Li
16. Massimo Martini
17. Alexandra-Maria Klein
18. Andreas Schuldt
19. Xiaojuan Liu
20. Keping Ma
21. Helge Bruelheide
22. Arong Luo
23. Chao-Dong Zhu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study uses a massive and long-term experimental data set to provide solid evidence on how tree diversity affects host-parasitoid communities of insects in forests. The work will be of interest to ecologists working on biodiversity conservation, community ecology, and food webs.

Reviewed by eLife

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

  The authors have undertaken a useful study to update an existing niche model of highly pathogenic avian influenza. However, there are issues regarding the conceptualisation of the ecological niche of highly pathogenic avian influenza transmission that the modelling aims to capture, raising concerns about the strength of evidence used to support the findings. There are a number of modelling assumptions that are incompletely justified. Combined with shortcomings in the communication, this dilutes the strength of the key findings of this work.

Reviewed by eLife

Interpreting prediction intervals and distributions for decoding biological generality in meta-analyses

1. Yefeng Yang
2. Daniel WA Noble
3. Alistair M Senior
4. Malgorzata Lagisz
5. Shinichi Nakagawa

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study provides a novel perspective on assessing the generalizability of meta-analytic findings by introducing prediction intervals (and distributions) as tools to evaluate whether future studies will likely yield non-zero effects. The methodology is generally solid, with a thorough exploration of a large set of published meta-analyses that broadens our understanding of between-study heterogeneity. However, some critical details are incomplete, requiring refinement to ensure statistical rigor.

Reviewed by eLife

Genetic diversity affects ecosystem functions across trophic levels as much as species diversity, but in an opposite direction

1. Laura Fargeot
2. Camille Poesy
3. Maxim Lefort
4. Jerome G Prunier
5. Madoka Krick
6. Rik Verdonck
7. Charlotte Veyssiere
8. Murielle Richard
9. Delphine Legrand
10. Geraldine Loot
11. Blanchet Simon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study uses a comprehensive observational dataset to provide solid evidence on how genetic diversity and species diversity differentially affect multiple ecosystem functions within and across multi-trophic levels in an aquatic ecosystem. The work will be of interest to ecologists working on multi-trophic relationships and biodiversity.

Reviewed by eLife

Planktonic oyster larvae optimize settlement decisions in complex sensory landscapes

1. Sarah Schmidlin
2. Yliam Treherne
3. Jan Mees
4. Pascal I. Hablützel

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

In defense of the original Type I functional response: The frequency and population-dynamic effects of feeding on multiple prey at a time

1. Mark Novak
2. Kyle E. Coblentz
3. John P. DeLong

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Strip cropping in organic agriculture results in 15% higher ground beetle richness and 30% higher activity density than monocultures

1. Luuk Croijmans
2. Fogelina Cuperus
3. Dirk F. van Apeldoorn
4. Felix J.J.A. Bianchi
5. Walter A.H. Rossing
6. Erik H. Poelman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study shows that strip cropping -- planting different crops in strips on the same field -- enhances the taxonomic diversity of ground beetles relative to corresponding monocultures in multiple experiments with different crops in the Netherlands. While these findings are important for demonstrating the potential beneficial effects of this form of intercropping, the information presented is incomplete with regard to sampling design and data obtained.

Reviewed by eLife