Shower thoughts: why scientists should spend more time in the rain.

Stormwater is a vital resource and dynamic driver of terrestrial ecosystem processes. However, processes controlling interactions during and shortly after storms are often poorly seen and poorly sensed when direct observations are substituted with technological ones. We discuss how human observations complement technological ones and the benefits of scientists spending more time in the storm.

Are all forms of defence lost on islands? Persistence of a defensive mutualism in six island colonists from New Zealand.

The loss of defence hypothesis posits that island colonizers experience a release from predation on the mainland and subsequently lose their defensive adaptations. However, while support for the hypothesis from direct defensive traits is abundant, far less is known about indirect defensive traits. Leaf domatia are cave-like structures produced on the underside of leaves that facilitate an indirect defensive interaction with predaceous and microbivorous mites.

Rain harvesting by plants.

Biddick and Van Stan II introduce how certain plant species harvest rain.

Experimental Warming Hastens Physical Dormancy Break and Germination in Tropical Fabaceae.

Climate warming may threaten the germination strategies of many plants that are uniquely adapted to today's climate. For instance, species that employ physical dormancy (PY) - the production of seeds that are impermeable to water until high temperatures break them, consequently synchronizing germination with favorable growing conditions - may find that their seeds germinate during unfavorable or potentially fatal periods if threshold temperatures are reached earlier in the year. To explore this, we subjected the seeds of five species with physical dormancy (from the genera , , , , and ) to "mild" (+2°C) and "extreme" (+4°C) future warming scenarios and documented their germination over 2 years relative to a control treatment.

Minimal models provide maximally parsimonious explanations.

We are delighted that Diniz-Filho et al. agree with the main premise of our paper, and we welcome their critique, as constructive debate will help foster a better understanding of size evolution on islands. Our perspective on each of their criticisms is discussed in greater detail below.

A simple null model predicts the island rule.

The island rule is a putative pattern in island evolution, where small species become larger on islands and large species become smaller. Despite decades of study, a mechanistic explanation for why some taxonomic groups obey the island rule, while others do not, has yet to be identified. Here, we explore whether the island rule might result from evolutionary drift.

Plants obey (and disobey) the island rule.

The island rule predicts that small animals evolve to become larger on islands, while large animals evolve to become smaller. It has been studied for over half a century, and its validity is fiercely debated. Here, we provide a perspective on the debate by conducting a test of the island rule in plants.

Mechanisms underpinning the onset of seed coat impermeability and dormancy-break in Astragalus adsurgens.

Impermeable seed coats, i.e. physical dormancy (PY) influence the germination ecology of plants from 18 angiosperm families.

Determination of the water gap and the germination ecology of (Fabaceae, Mimosoideae); the adaptive role of physical dormancy in mimetic seeds.

Dormancy caused by impermeable seed coats, i.e. physical dormancy (PY), regulates the timing of seed germination in species of several genera belonging to 18 angiosperm families.

An alternative water transport system in land plants.

The evolution of vascular tissue is a key innovation enabling plants to inhabit terrestrial environments. Here, we demonstrate extra-vascular water transport in a giant, prop-rooted monocot from Lord Howe Island. (Pandanaceae) produces gutter-like leaves that capture rainwater, which is then couriered along a network of channels to the tips of aerial roots, where it is stored by absorptive tissue.

Phenotypic trait matching predicts the topology of an insular plant-bird pollination network.

Conceptualizing species interactions as networks has broadened our understanding of ecological communities. However, the factors shaping interaction patterns among species and, therefore, network structure remain unclear. One potentially important factor is the matching of phenotypic traits.