Aim Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β‐diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β‐diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay...

Scientists have long been trying to understand why the Neotropical region holds the highest diversity of birds on Earth. Recently, there has been increased interest in morphological variation between and within species, and in how climate, topography, and anthropogenic pressures may explain and affect phenotypic variation. Because morphological data are not always available for many species at the local or regional scale, we a...

Aim We examined the effects of space, climate, phylogeny and species traits on module composition in a cross‐biomes plant–hummingbird network. Location Brazil, except Amazonian region. Methods We compiled 31 local binary plant–hummingbird networks, combining them into one cross‐biomes metanetwork. We conducted a modularity analysis and tested the relationship between species’ module membership with traits, geographical locatio...

Aim To investigate the association between hummingbird–plant network structure and species richness, phylogenetic signal on species' interaction pattern, insularity and historical and current climate. Location Fifty‐four communities along a c . 10,000 km latitudinal gradient across the A mericas (39° N –32° S ), ranging from sea level to c . 3700 m a.s.l., located on the mainland and on islands and covering a wide range of cli...

Benthic fluxes of dissolved ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ) and phosphate (TPO 4 ) were quantified by in situ benthic chamber incubations and pore‐water profiles along a depth transect (11°S, 80‐1000 m) across the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Bottom‐water O 2 levels were −1 down to 500‐m water depth, and increased to ∼ 40 µmol L −1 at 1000 m. Fe 2+ fluxes were highest on the shallow shelf (maximum 316 mmol m −2 yr −1 ), moderate...

We investigated the microbial pathways of nitrogen (N) loss in an April 2005 transect through the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) at 12°S latitude using short anaerobic incubations with 15 N‐labeled substrates and molecular‐ecological and lipid‐biomarker studies. In incubations with 15 NH 4 + , immediate production of 14 N 15 N, but not 15 N 15 N, indicated that N 2 was produced by the pairing of labeled 15 NH 4 + with in s...