Aim Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location Amazonia. Taxon A...

Dominance of neotropical tree communities by a few species is widely documented, but dominant trees show a variety of distributional patterns still poorly understood. Here, we used 503 forest inventory plots (93,719 individuals ≥2.5 cm diameter, 2609 species) to explore the relationships between local abundance, regional frequency and spatial aggregation of dominant species in four main habitat types in western Amazonia. Altho...

We contend that ocean turbulent fluxes should be included in the list of Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) created by the Global Ocean Observing System. This list aims to identify variables that are essential to observe to inform policy and maintain a healthy and resilient ocean. Diapycnal turbulent fluxes quantify the rates of exchange of tracers (such as temperature, salinity, density or nutrients, all of which are already EO...

The lowland Amazon rainforest houses some of the greatest tree diversity on Earth. While the vast majority of these species are rare, a small number are common and widespread and thus considered to play a disproportionate role in many of the global ecosystem services provided by the Amazon. However, the extent to which dominant Amazonian tree species actually include multiple clades, each on their own unique evolutionary traje...

Global pollinator declines threaten food production and natural ecosystems. The drivers of declines are complicated and driven by numerous factors such as pesticide use, loss of habitat, rising pathogens due to commercial bee keeping and climate change. Halting and reversing pollinator declines will require a multidisciplinary approach and international cooperation. Here, we summarize 20 presentations given in the symposium ‘P...

Aim To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser‐availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoocho...

Global warming is causing an unprecedented loss of species and habitats worldwide. This is particularly apparent for tropical coral reefs, with an increasing number of reefs experiencing mass bleaching and mortality on an annual basis. As such, there is a growing need for a standardized experimental approach to rapidly assess the thermal limits of corals and predict the survival of coral species across reefs and regions. Using...

Corals from the northern Red Sea, in particular the Gulf of Aqaba (GoA), have exceptionally high bleaching thresholds approaching >5℃ above their maximum monthly mean (MMM) temperatures. These elevated thresholds are thought to be due to historical selection, as corals passed through the warmer Southern Red Sea during recolonization from the Arabian Sea. To test this hypothesis, we determined thermal tolerance thresholds of Go...

Global warming is resulting in unprecedented levels of coral mortality due to mass bleaching events and, more recently, marine heatwaves, where rapid increases in seawater temperature cause mortality within days. Here, we compare the response of a ubiquitous scleractinian coral, Stylophora pistillata , from the northern Red Sea to acute (7 h) and chronic (7–11 d) thermal stress events that include temperature treatments of 27°...

The forests of western Amazonia are among the most diverse tree communities on Earth, yet this exceptional diversity is distributed highly unevenly within and among communities. In particular, a small number of dominant species account for the majority of individuals, whereas the large majority of species are locally and regionally extremely scarce. By definition, dominant species contribute little to local species richness (a...

Disturbance and advertisement calls of the Argentine croaker Umbrina canosai were recorded from coastal Uruguayan waters. Dissections indicate typical sciaenid extrinsic swimbladder muscles present exclusively in males. Disturbance calls were produced when captive U. canosai were startled, chased with a net or grabbed by the tail. Calls were unusual for sciaenids because each pulse consisted of multiple cycles. The number of c...

Herbivory is viewed as a major driver of plant evolution and the most important energy pathway from plants to higher trophic levels. Therefore, understanding patterns of herbivory on plants remains a key focus in evolution and ecology. The evolutionary impacts of leaf herbivory include altering plant fitness, local adaptation, the evolution of defenses, and the diversification of plants as well as natural enemies. Leaf herbivo...