More evolvable bacteriophages better suppress their host.

The number of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria is increasing rapidly, while the number of new antibiotic discoveries has stagnated. This trend has caused a surge in interest in bacteriophages as anti-bacterial therapeutics, in part because there is near limitless diversity of phages to harness. While this diversity provides an opportunity, it also creates the dilemma of having to decide which criteria to use to select phages.

Effects of dispersal and temperature variability on phytoplankton realized temperature niches.

Phytoplankton species exhibit fundamental temperature niches that drive observed species distributions linked to realized temperature niches. A recent analysis of field observations of showed that for all ecotypes, the realized niche was, on average, colder and wider than the fundamental niche. Using a simple trait-based metacommunity model that resolves fundamental temperature niches for a range of competing phytoplankton, we ask how dispersal and local temperature variability influence species distributions and diversity, and whether these processes help explain the observed discrepancies between fundamental and realized niches for .

Vertically inherited microbiota and environment-modifying behaviors indirectly shape the exaggeration of secondary sexual traits in the gazelle dung beetle.

Many organisms actively manipulate the environment in ways that feed back on their own development, a process referred to as developmental niche construction. Yet, the role that constructed biotic and abiotic environments play in shaping phenotypic variation and its evolution is insufficiently understood. Here, we assess whether environmental modifications made by developing dung beetles impact the environment-sensitive expression of secondary sexual traits.

Interactions among salt marsh plants vary geographically but not latitudinally along the California coast.

The strength of species interactions often varies geographically and locally with environmental conditions. Competitive interactions are predicted to be stronger in benign environments while facilitation is expected to be stronger in harsh ones. We tested these ideas with an aboveground neighbor removal experiment at six salt marshes along the California coast.