The Micropaleoecology Framework: Evaluating Biotic Responses to Global Change Through Paleoproxy, Microfossil, and Ecological Data Integration.

The microfossil record contains abundant, diverse, and well-preserved fossils spanning multiple trophic levels from primary producers to apex predators. In addition, microfossils often constitute and are preserved in high abundances alongside continuous high-resolution geochemical proxy records. These characteristics mean that microfossils can provide valuable context for understanding the modern climate and biodiversity crises by allowing for the interrogation of spatiotemporal scales well beyond what is available in neo-ecological research.

Niche partitioning and host specialisation in fish-parasitising isopods: Trait-dependent patterns from three ecosystems on the east coast of India.

Due to their large size and obligate nature, Cymothoid isopods inflict a high degree of tissue damage to fish. Still, they are understudied at an ecosystem level despite their global presence and ecological role. In this work, we collected fish host-isopod parasite data, along with their life history and ecological traits, from the northern part of the east coast of India and investigated patterns in host specialisation and preference of isopod parasites using a trait-based network perspective.

The diet-intestinal microbiota dynamics and adaptation in an elevational migration bird, the Himalayan bluetail ().

Migratory birds experience changes in their environment and diet during seasonal migrations, thus requiring interactions between diet and gut microbes. Understanding the co-evolution of the host and gut microbiota is critical for elucidating the rapid adaptations of avian gut microbiota. However, dynamics of gut microbial adaptations concerning elevational migratory behavior, which is prevalent but understudied in montane birds remain poorly understood.

Historical tree phenology data reveal the seasonal rhythms of the Congo Basin rainforest.

Tropical forest phenology directly affects regional carbon cycles, but the relation between species-specific and whole-canopy phenology remains largely uncharacterized. We present a unique analysis of historical tropical tree phenology collected in the central Congo Basin, before large-scale impacts of human-induced climate change. Ground-based long-term (1937-1956) phenological observations of 140 tropical tree species are recovered, species-specific phenological patterns analyzed and related to historical meteorological records, and scaled to characterize stand-level canopy dynamics.

The role of biogeographical barriers on the historical dynamics of passerine birds with a circum-Amazonian distribution.

Common distributional patterns have provided the foundations of our knowledge of Neotropical biogeography. A distinctive pattern is the "circum-Amazonian distribution", which surrounds Amazonia across the forested lowlands south and east of the basin, the Andean foothills, the Venezuelan Coastal Range, and the Tepuis. The underlying evolutionary and biogeographical mechanisms responsible for this widespread pattern of avian distribution have yet to be elucidated.

The nature of science: The fundamental role of natural history in ecology, evolution, conservation, and education.

There is a contemporary trend in many major research institutions to de-emphasize the importance of natural history education in favor of theoretical, laboratory, or simulation-based research programs. This may take the form of removing biodiversity and field courses from the curriculum and the sometimes subtle maligning of natural history research as a "lesser" branch of science. Additional threats include massive funding cuts to natural history museums and the maintenance of their collections, the extirpation of taxonomists across disciplines, and a critical under-appreciation of the role that natural history data (and other forms of observational data, including Indigenous knowledge) play in the scientific process.

Cycad phylogeny predicts host plant use of butterflies.

butterflies are obligate herbivores of , the most diverse neotropical genus of cycads. interactions have been characterized mainly for species distributed in North and Central America. However, larval host plant use by the southern clade remains largely unknown, precluding a comprehensive study of co-evolution between the genera.

Safeguarding human-wildlife cooperation.

Human-wildlife cooperation occurs when humans and free-living wild animals actively coordinate their behavior to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. These interactions provide important benefits to both the human and wildlife communities involved, have wider impacts on the local ecosystem, and represent a unique intersection of human and animal cultures. The remaining active forms are human-honeyguide and human-dolphin cooperation, but these are at risk of joining several inactive forms (including human-wolf and human-orca cooperation).

Benefits and limitations of a new genome-based PCR-RFLP genotyping assay (GB-RFLP): A SNP-based detection method for identification of species in extremely young adaptive radiations.

High-throughput DNA sequencing technologies make it possible now to sequence entire genomes relatively easily. Complete genomic information obtained by whole-genome resequencing (WGS) can aid in identifying and delineating species even if they are extremely young, cryptic, or morphologically difficult to discern and closely related. Yet, for taxonomic or conservation biology purposes, WGS can remain cost-prohibitive, too time-consuming, and often constitute a "data overkill.

Low genome-wide divergence between two lizard populations with high adaptive phenotypic differentiation.

Usually, adaptive phenotypic differentiation is paralleled by genetic divergence between locally adapted populations. However, adaptation can also happen in a scenario of nonsignificant genetic divergence due to intense gene flow and/or recent differentiation. While this phenomenon is rarely published, findings on incipient ecologically driven divergence or isolation by adaptation are relatively common, which could confound our understanding about the frequency at which they actually occur in nature.