Biogeography articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wetlands are global hotspots of carbon storage, but errors exist with current estimates of the extent of their carbon density. Here the authors show that mangrove sediment organic carbon stock has previously been overestimated, while ecosystem carbon stock has been underestimated.

    • Xiaoguang Ouyang
    •  & Shing Yip Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate-induced poleward shifts in plant distributions could flatten latitudinal diversity gradients. However, here the authors show that the spread of forests after the last ice age reduced diversity in central and northern Europe, and that human land-use over the past 5000 years strengthened the latitudinal gradient in plant diversity.

    • Thomas Giesecke
    • , Steffen Wolters
    •  & Simon Brewer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exceptional alpine plant diversity exists in the Hengduan Mountains. Here, through genome assembly and population genomics studies, the authors find notable intraspecific divergence among Cushion willow populations isolated by the sky island-like habitats and consider it contributes to speciation and biodiversity.

    • Jia-hui Chen
    • , Yuan Huang
    •  & Hang Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Broad scale patterns in the distribution of animal community functional properties could be determined by climate and disrupted by human activities. Here the authors show global patterns in large-mammal trophic structure related to climate variation, which human activities simplify in predictable ways.

    • Manuel Mendoza
    •  & Miguel B. Araújo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mycorrhizas—mutualistic relationships formed between fungi and most plant species—are functionally linked to soil carbon stocks. Here the authors map the global distribution of mycorrhizal plants and quantify links between mycorrhizal vegetation patterns and terrestrial carbon stocks.

    • Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia
    • , Peter M. van Bodegom
    •  & Leho Tedersoo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protected areas are important refugia for wildlife, so if climate conditions within them change, wildlife could lose critical suitable habitat. Here the authors calculate the projected gain and loss of climate conditions within terrestrial protected areas worldwide.

    • Samuel Hoffmann
    • , Severin D. H. Irl
    •  & Carl Beierkuhnlein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Satellite-borne radar systems are promising tools to obtain spatial habitat data with complete geographic coverage. Here the authors show that freely available Sentinel-1 radar data perform as well as standard airborne laser scanning data for mapping biodiversity of 12 taxa across temperate forests in Germany.

    • Soyeon Bae
    • , Shaun R. Levick
    •  & Jörg Müller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deep learning has the potential to identify ecological relationships between environment and complex phenotypes that are difficult to quantify. Here, the authors use deep learning to analyse associations among elevation, climate and phenotype across ~2000 moth species in Taiwan.

    • Shipher Wu
    • , Chun-Min Chang
    •  & Sheng-Feng Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mismatches between the pace of climate change and plant responses may lead to delayed upslope shifts or extinction of mountain species. Here the authors investigate 135 alpine plant species, finding that extinction debts are more common among cold-adapted plants and colonization credits among warm-adapted plants.

    • Sabine B. Rumpf
    • , Karl Hülber
    •  & Stefan Dullinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alkaline lakes have some of the highest productivity rates in freshwater ecosystems. Here the authors report amplicon, metagenome, and proteome sequencing from microbial mat communities of four alkaline lakes in Canada, and compare these lakes to central Asian soda lakes, revealing a shared core microbiome despite the geographical distance.

    • Jackie K. Zorz
    • , Christine Sharp
    •  & Marc Strous

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large brains are expected to be beneficial in variable environments by enabling flexible behavioral responses. Here, the authors show that relative brain size in birds is bimodally distributed in colder, seasonal environments, suggesting that both large and small brains can be adaptive solutions to harsh conditions.

    • Trevor S. Fristoe
    •  & Carlos A. Botero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory suggests that neutral genetic diversity is determined by census population size, but this is not observed empirically. Here, the authors show that in butterflies, neutral genetic diversity correlates with both body size and chromosome number, suggesting that linked selection is also an important factor.

    • Alexander Mackintosh
    • , Dominik R. Laetsch
    •  & Konrad Lohse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple drivers maintain unique species assemblages at multiple biogeographic scales. Here, the authors show that the freezing line is a key barrier generating evolutionary differences in temperate and tropical bird communities across a steep elevational gradient in the Himalaya.

    • Alexander E. White
    • , Kushal K. Dey
    •  & Trevor D. Price

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kong et al. use a global trait dataset of 800 plant species to examine the root economics spectrum in relation to root diameter, tissue density and root nitrogen concentration. Nonlinear trait relationships were observed, suggesting allometry-based nonlinearity in root trait relationships.

    • Deliang Kong
    • , Junjian Wang
    •  & Yulong Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Could similar ecological and biogeographic drivers explain the distributions of biological diversity and human cultural diversity? The authors explore ecological correlates of human language diversity, finding strong support for a role of high year-round productivity but less support for landscape features.

    • Xia Hua
    • , Simon J. Greenhill
    •  & Lindell Bromham

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attaining global biodiversity projections requires the use of various species distribution and climate modelling and scenario approaches. Here the authors report that model choice can significantly impact results, with particularly uncertainty arising from choice of species distribution model and emission scenario.

    • Wilfried Thuiller
    • , Maya Guéguen
    •  & Niklaus E. Zimmermann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Separating anthropogenic and climatic impacts on forest compositions can be challenging due to a lack of data. Here the authors look at forest compositional changes in eastern Canada since the 19th century and find land use has most strongly shaped communities towards disturbance-adapted species.

    • Victor Danneyrolles
    • , Sébastien Dupuis
    •  & Dominique Arseneault

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear whether microbes and animals residing in soils follow similar distribution patterns. Here, the authors report richness and diversity of soil microbes and invertebrates across soil, vegetation, and land use gradients in Wales, showing that land use affects animals while soil traits affect microbes.

    • Paul B. L. George
    • , Delphine Lallias
    •  & Davey L. Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The late Paleozoic was a time of major transition for tetrapods. Here, Brocklehurst and colleagues analyse the biogeography of Paleozoic tetrapods and find shifts in dispersal and vicariance associated with Carboniferous mountain formation and end-Guadalupian climate variability.

    • Neil Brocklehurst
    • , Emma M. Dunne
    •  & Jӧrg Frӧbisch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The expansion of grassland plant diversity is thought to have facilitated diversification of herbivorous insects. Here, the authors show opposing evolutionary dynamics in a clade of African grasses and associated stemborers, opposing the hypothesis about grasslands as a 'cradle' of herbivore diversity.

    • Gael J. Kergoat
    • , Fabien L. Condamine
    •  & Bruno Le Ru

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species extinction risk is difficult to measure and often lags behind the pace of increasing threats. Here, the authors demonstrate how monitoring changes in cumulative human pressures could be used to rapidly assess potential change in species’ conservation status.

    • Moreno Di Marco
    • , Oscar Venter
    •  & James E. M. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    East Asia contains “relict” plant species that persist under narrow climatic conditions after once having wider distributions. Here, using distribution records coupled with ecological niche models, the authors identify long-term stable refugia possessing past, current and future climatic suitability favoring ancient plant lineages.

    • Cindy Q. Tang
    • , Tetsuya Matsui
    •  & Jordi López-Pujol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fossil taxon Propotto was originally identified as a primate, but is currently widely interpreted as a bat. Here, the authors identify Propotto as a stem chiromyiform lemur and, based on phylogenetic analysis, suggest two independent lemur colonizations of Madagascar.

    • Gregg F. Gunnell
    • , Doug M. Boyer
    •  & Erik R. Seiffert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Red-snow algae are red-pigmented unicellular algae that appear seasonally on the surface of thawing snow worldwide. Here, Segawa et al. analyse nuclear ITS2 sequences from snow algae from the Arctic and Antarctica, identifying dominant phylotypes present in both poles as well as endemic organisms.

    • Takahiro Segawa
    • , Ryo Matsuzaki
    •  & Hiroshi Mori

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrobioerosion, the boring of rock and other hard substrates by living organisms, is used as a marker of marine paleo-environments. Here, Bolotov et al. describe a rock-boring mussel and its associated community from freshwater in Myanmar, demonstrating that macrobioerosion is a wider phenomenon.

    • Ivan N. Bolotov
    • , Olga V. Aksenova
    •  & Oleg S. Pokrovsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Power et al. catalogue the microbial biodiversity and physicochemistry of around 1000 hotsprings across New Zealand, providing insights into the ecological conditions that drive community assembly in these ecosystems.

    • Jean F. Power
    • , Carlo R. Carere
    •  & Matthew B. Stott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple hypotheses have been proposed for the declining biodiversity gradient between the tropics and poles. Here, the authors compile and analyze geographic data for all ant species and large-scale phylogenies, suggesting that diversification time drives the latitudinal diversity gradient in ants.

    • Evan P. Economo
    • , Nitish Narula
    •  & Benoit Guénard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Habitat change and warming each contribute to species' elevational range shifts, but their synergistic effects have not been explored. Here, Guo et al. reanalyze published data and show that the interaction between warming and forest change predicts range shifts better than either factor on its own.

    • Fengyi Guo
    • , Jonathan Lenoir
    •  & Timothy C. Bonebrake

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species richness patterns are driven by biotic and abiotic factors, the relative strengths of which are unclear. Here, the authors test how species interactions or environmental traits influence fish richness across over 700 Canadian lakes, showing a surprisingly small role of negative interactions.

    • Andrew S. MacDougall
    • , Eric Harvey
    •  & Kevin S. McCann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, an eDNA metabarcoding data set was used to describe northern high-latitude vegetation during the past 50,000 years. Here, Zobel et al. use the data set to examine how the abundance of key plant mutualistic traits changed during this period and discuss possible environmental drivers.

    • Martin Zobel
    • , John Davison
    •  & Mari Moora

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining the conservation status and populations trends for elusive predators has been impeded by discrepancies in how densities are calculated. Here, Luskin et al. introduce a means to standardize previous density estimates and assess the threats to the Sumatran tiger.

    • Matthew Scott Luskin
    • , Wido Rizki Albert
    •  & Mathias W. Tobler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global maps of biogeographic realms help to understand the geological and ecological processes that gave rise to species distributions, yet a marine realm map has been lacking. Here, Costello et al. use a database of over 65,000 species to reveal 30 marine biogeographic realms and high rates of species endemicity.

    • Mark J. Costello
    • , Peter Tsai
    •  & Chhaya Chaudhary

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mass extinctions are thought to produce ‘disaster faunas’, communities dominated by a small number of widespread species. Here, Button et al. develop a phylogenetic network approach to test this hypothesis and find that mass extinctions did increase faunal cosmopolitanism across Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic.

    • David J. Button
    • , Graeme T. Lloyd
    •  & Richard J. Butler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia) aids the growth of many legume species, but may also restrict their ability to colonize new regions lacking suitable rhizobia. Here, the authors show that symbiotic legumes are indeed less likely to become established in new regions than their non-symbiotic relatives.

    • Anna K. Simonsen
    • , Russell Dinnage
    •  & Peter H. Thrall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Relatively little is understood about seasonal effect of climate change on the Amazon rainforest. Here, the authors show that Amazon forest loss in response to dry-season intensification during the last glacial period was likely self-amplified by regional vegetation-rainfall feedbacks.

    • Delphine Clara Zemp
    • , Carl-Friedrich Schleussner
    •  & Anja Rammig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine plankton are the basis of the oceanic food chain. Here, Chivers and colleagues use ocean-basin wide plankton population data over six decades to show huge differences in the response of different plankton groups to climate change with major implications for the marine ecosystem and fisheries.

    • William J. Chivers
    • , Anthony W. Walne
    •  & Graeme C. Hays

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increased temperature and nutrient pollution are key features of anthropogenic change, but their dual effects on biodiversity remain unclear. Here Wanget al. conduct field experiments at two mountain elevation gradients to show that temperature and nutrients have independent and interactive effects on microbial diversity.

    • Jianjun Wang
    • , Feiyan Pan
    •  & Ji Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Songbirds originated in Australia and have now diversified into approximately 5,000 species found across the world. Here, Moyle et al. combine phylogenomic and biogeographic analyses to show that songbird diversification was associated with the formation of islands providing a route out of Australia.

    • Robert G. Moyle
    • , Carl H. Oliveros
    •  & Brant C. Faircloth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether conditions experienced on long-distance migrations affect breeding populations is not clear. Here, the authors tracked migrating Common Cuckoos from the UK to Africa and show that route choices affect mortality during migration, and population decline in this nocturnally migrating bird.

    • Chris M. Hewson
    • , Kasper Thorup
    •  & Philip W. Atkinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Paleogene continental collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia initiated biotic interchange over a timescale of millions of years. Klaus et al. develop a phylogeographic method to estimate the dynamics of biotic interchange over these timescales, revealing periods of acceleration, stagnation and decline.

    • Sebastian Klaus
    • , Robert J. Morley
    •  & Jia-Tang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Arctic is melting at an unprecedented rate and key drivers are changes in snow and ice albedo. Here, the authors show that red pigmented snow algae play a crucial role in decreasing surface albedo and their patterns for diversity, pigmentation, and consequently albedo, are ubiquitous across the Arctic.

    • Stefanie Lutz
    • , Alexandre M. Anesio
    •  & Liane G. Benning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trichinellosis is a globally important food-borne disease caused by roundworms of the Trichinella complex. Here the authors present genomic sequences representing all 12 recognized Trichinellaspecies and genotypes, and reconstruct their phylogeny and biogeography.

    • Pasi K. Korhonen
    • , Edoardo Pozio
    •  & Robin B. Gasser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The biogeographic origins of Permian terrestrial vertebrates in high-latitude regions remain poorly understood. Here, the authors report an early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana that constitutes a new biogeographic province with North American affinities.

    • Juan C. Cisneros
    • , Claudia Marsicano
    •  & Rudyard W. Sadleir

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