mathematical model

3rd Stanislaw Lem Workshop on Biodiversity and Evolution

The next iteration of our notorious series of Stanislaw Lem Workshops, March 6-9, 2023 at the WasserCluster Lunz, Austria

Project on Movement Ecology extended for a second phase

Our Collaborative Research Centre on 'Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates' has been extended for a seond phase

Estimation of functional diversity and species traits from ecological monitoring data

The rampant loss of biodiversity is starting to be recognized as a global crisis rivaling the climate emergency. To address this crisis, scientists need robust methods to measure the diversity in a system. Importantly, these methods should not only count species but capture the variety of different functions that the species in a system can perform. In this paper, we propose a machine learning method by which existing data from ecosystem monitoring can be reanalyzed to reveal changes of functional biodiversity over time.

Predicting performance of naïve migratory animals, from many wrongs to self-correction"

Migratory orientation of many animals is inheritable, enabling inexperienced (naïve) individuals to migrate independently using a geomagnetic or celestial compass. It remains unresolved how naïve migrants reliably reach remote destinations, sometimes …

Story behind the paper: The enigmatic persistence of dissolved organic matter in the oceans

Why complex systems theory might help to better understand one of the most mysterious carbon pools in the earth system

The Gossip Paradox: why do bacteria share genes?

Bacteria, in contrast to eukaryotic cells contain two types of genes: chromosomal genes that are fixed to the cell, and plasmids that are mobile genes, easily shared to other cells. The sharing of plasmid genes between individual bacteria and between …

Comparing Optimization Criteria in Antibiotic Allocation Protocols

Clinicians prescribing antibiotics in a hospital context follow one of several possible 'treatment protocols' - heuristic rules designed to balance the immediate needs of patients against the long term threat posed by the evolution of antibiotic …

Emergent Diversity and Persistent Turnover in Evolving Microbial Cross-Feeding Networks

A distinguishing feature of many ecological networks in the microbial realm is the diversity of substrates that could potentially serve as energy sources for microbial consumers. The microorganisms are themselves the agents of compound …

Coexistence patterns and diversity in a trait-based metacommunity on an environmental gradient

The dynamics of trait-based metacommunities have attracted much attention, but not much is known about how dispersal and spatial environmental variability mutually interact with each other to drive coexistence patterns and diversity. Here, we present …

Comment on 'Indirect Fitness Benefits Enable the Spread of Host Genes Promoting Costly Transfer of Beneficial Plasmids'

In their 2016 paper, Dimitriu and colleagues make use of both experimental and analytical techniques to study horizontal gene transfer and the conditions under which indirect fitness effects select for cells with high donor ability. They report both …