Summary Some amphibian skin bacteria inhibit growth of a fungal amphibian pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), but it is unclear how dominant these anti‐Bd bacteria are in skin communities. Using in vitro co‐culture challenge assays, we quantified Bd inhibition by bacterial isolates collected from the skin of four amphibian species: bullfrogs, Eastern newts, spring peepers and American toads. The 16S rRNA sequences f...

At least five populations (stocks) of beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) are thought to winter in the Being Sea, including the Bristol Bay, Eastern Bering Sea (Norton Sound), Anadyr, Eastern Chukchi Sea, and Eastern Beaufort Sea (Mackenzie) populations. Belugas from each population have been tagged with satellite‐linked transmitters, allowing us to describe their winter (January–March) distribution. The objectives of this...

We describe the annual distribution of beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) in Bristol Bay, Alaska, using data from 31 satellite‐linked transmitters during 2002–2011. Bristol Bay has one of the largest and best studied Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp.) fisheries in the world, allowing us to link the seasonal distribution of belugas to that of salmon. During salmon migrations, beluga movements were restricted to river entr...

Aim Understanding how ecological and evolutionary processes together determine patterns of biodiversity remains a central aim in biology. Guided by ecological theory, we use data from multiple arthropod lineages across the Hawaiian archipelago to explore the interplay between ecological (population dynamics, dispersal, trophic interactions) and evolutionary (genetic structuring, adaptation, speciation, extinction) processes. O...

Urbanization and agricultural intensification of landscapes are important drivers of global change, which in turn have direct impacts on local ecological communities leading to shifts in species distributions and interactions. Here, we illustrate how human‐altered landscapes, with novel ornamental and crop plant communities, result not only in changes to local community diversity of floral‐dependent species, but also in shifts...

Summary A low‐diversity microbial community, dominated by the γ ‐proteobacterium H alomonas sulfidaeris , was detected in samples of warm saline formation porewater collected from the C ambrian Mt. S imon S andstone in the I llinois B asin of the N orth A merican M idcontinent (1.8 km/5872 ft burial depth, 50° C , pH 8, 181 bars pressure). These highly porous and permeable quartz arenite sandstones are directly analogous to re...

Tree cover varies enormously across tropical ecosystems—from arid savannas to closed rain forests—and yet a general predictive theory of tropical tree cover remains elusive. Here we use the maximum‐entropy method to predict the most likely sample frequency distribution of ecosystems with different tree and grass fractional cover if balance between water supply and demand were the dominant constraint on community assembly. Assu...

Summary Biomass production for bioenergy may change soil microbes and influence ecosystem properties. To explore the impact of different bioenergy cropping systems on soil microorganisms, the compositions and quantities of soil microbial communities (16S rRNA gene) and N‐cycling functional groups ( nifH , bacterial amoA , archaeal amoA and nosZ genes) were assessed under maize, switchgrass and Miscanthus x giganteus at seven s...

Counts of migrating whales depend on accurate sightings data. In this study, teams of shore‐based observers independently tracked whale pods during the southbound migration of gray whales ( Eschrichtius robustus ) while a routine (“standard watch”) census was underway. A comparison of sighting records showed that time and location accuracy was limited to 45 s, 3° (magnetic) horizontally, and 0.0057° (0.2 reticles) vertically....

Summary Based on short‐term experiments, many plant growth models – including those used in global change research – assume that an increase in temperature stimulates plant respiration ( R ) more than photosynthesis ( P ), leading to an increase in the R / P ratio. Longer‐term experiments, however, have demonstrated that R / P is relatively insensitive to growth temperature. We show that both types of temperature response may...