There is still considerable debate about which mechanisms drive the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF). Although most scientists agree on the existence of two underlying mechanisms, complementarity and selection, …
Many empirical food webs contain multiple resources, which can lead to the emergence of sub-communities—partitions—in a food web that are weakly connected with each other. These partitions interact and affect the complete food web. However, the fact …
Plasmid carriage is associated with energetic costs, and thus only those plasmids providing fitness benefits are stably maintained in the host lineage. Marine bacteria of the Roseobacter clade harbor up to 11 extrachromosomal replicons, adding …
Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) obtain energy from cytoplasmic reduction of sulfate to sulfide involving APS-reductase (AprAB) and dissimilatory sulfite reductase (DsrAB). These enzymes are predicted to obtain electrons from membrane redox complexes, …
Predicting the arrival of alien species remains a big challenge, which is assumed to be a consequence of the complexity of the invasion process. Here, we demonstrate that spreading of alien marine species can be predicted by a simple model using only global shipping intensities, environmental variables, and species occurrence data. We provide species lists of the next potentially invading species in a local habitat or species causing harmful algal blooms with their associated probability of invasion. This will help to improve mitigation strategies to reduce the further introduction of alien species. Although this study focuses on marine algae, the model approach can be easily adopted to other taxonomic groups and their respective drivers of invasion
Ecological communities are often characterised by many species occupying the same trophic level and competing over a small number of vital resources. The mechanisms maintaining high biodiversity in such systems are still poorly understood. Here, we …
The analysis of small recurrent substructures, so called network motifs, has become a standard tool of complex network science to unveil the design principles underlying the structure of empirical networks. In many natural systems network nodes are …
Trade plays a key role in the spread of alien species and has arguably contributed to the recent enormous acceleration of biological invasions, thus homogenizing biotas worldwide. Combining data on 60‐year trends of bilateral trade, as well as on …
Spatial correlations in environmental stochasticity can synchronize populations over wide areas, a phenomenon known as the Moran effect. The Moran effect has been confirmed in field, laboratory and theoretical investigations. Little is known, …
The theory of resource competition in spatially extended systems with resources and biomass fluxes is far from trivial. Here, we analyze the competition between two phytoplankton species for light and a nutrient in a weakly mixed water column. We …