Modes of reproduction and sexual strategies strongly influence the genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of a species. The ascomycete fungus Clonostachys rosea is reported to be homothallic (sexually self‐fertile), although a rapid decay of genome‐wide linkage disequilibrium is also reported, something that is not in line with an obligate homothallic mode of reproduction. To investigate this phenomenon, we identified th...

“Regionalisation” refers to the identification of distinct geographical units relatively homogeneous in their biotic and/or abiotic attributes, with the aims of enhancing the understanding of ecosystem functioning and informing decision-making in conservation planning and research efforts. In the Red Sea, the paucity of in situ data and discipline-specific research interests have hampered quantitative and comprehensive regiona...

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...

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...

Estuaries function as “bioreactors” for fluvial materials in which microbial, biogeochemical, and ecological processes transform organic matter and nutrients prior to export to coastal oceans. The impact of estuarine bioreactors is linked to the bioavailability and residence time of fluvial material, and to rates of microbial activity. In the Columbia River estuary, water residence time is short (approximately 2 d), but partic...

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...