A model of a species-rich neutral ecosystem, perturbed by environmental noise impacting each species differently, predicts that for large noise the community is dominated by a few species, while for weaker noise it is more egalitarian, with many significant species.
A novel approach has been developed to partition the net biodiversity effect into components associated with positive, negative, and competitive species interactions.
Daria M Odermatt, Frank Chidawanyika ... Meredith C Schuman
'Push-pull' agro-ecosystems appear to protect maize against the fall armyworm, but volatiles from Desmodium intercrops are not sufficient to reliably repel this herbivore, indicating that additional mechanisms contribute to protection.
Luuk Croijmans, Fogelina Cuperus ... Erik H Poelman
Strip cropping is a farm management practice that increases ground beetle diversity without major effects on crop yield and while being practically implementable.
Behavioural patterns among female gorillas indicate that animals guide their aggressive interactions towards more or less powerful groupmates depending on the conditions they experience.
Marc W Schmid, Klara Kropivšek ... Ueli Grossniklaus
Strong selection by aphids only weakly affects epigenetic and phenotypic variation within three Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, demonstrating limited potential for adaptation by epigenetic differentiation within genotypes in this model species.
