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    Amber from the Triassic to Paleogene of Australia and New Zealand as exceptional preservation of poorly known terrestrial ecosystems

    Triassic amber Previously unrecorded, the oldest Southern Pangea amber occurs in the Upper Triassic terrestrial deposits of the Fingal Valley Coal Measures (‘Fingal Tier’) of the Upper Parmeener Supergroup of Tasmania, where it was discovered in 2015 (Figs. 2A,C and S1) (see also the Supplementary Text). The amber is found as small (≤1.5 mm long), mostly clear […] More

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    Deep microbial proliferation at the basalt interface in 33.5–104 million-year-old oceanic crust

    Sampling sites Core samples were collected from basaltic basement at Sites U1365, U1367, and U1368 in the South Pacific Gyre during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 329 (October 9 through December 13, 2010; Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 1). Although surface heat-flow data from Sites U1365 and U1367 were consistent with those expected for conductive […] More

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    Genetically similar temperate phages form coalitions with their shared host that lead to niche-specific fitness effects

    1. Brussow H, Canchaya C, Hardt WD. Phages and the evolution of bacterial pathogens: from genomic rearrangements to lysogenic conversion. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2004;68:560–602. Google Scholar 2. Bondy-Denomy J, Davidson AR. When a virus is not a parasite: the beneficial effects of prophages on bacterial fitness. J Microbiol. 2014;52:235–42. Google Scholar 3. Paul JH. […] More

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    A role for gut microbiota in host niche differentiation

    1. Schoener TW. Resource partitioning in ecological communities. Science 1974;185:27–39. Google Scholar 2. De León LF, Podos J, Gardezi T, Herrel A, Hendry AP. Darwin’s finches and their diet niches: the sympatric coexistence of imperfect generalists. J Evol Biol. 2014;27:1093–104. Google Scholar 3. Kartzinel TR, Chen PA, Coverdale TC, Erickson DL, Kress WJ, Kuzmina ML, […] More

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    Within-season movements of Alpine songbird distributions are driven by fine-scale environmental characteristics

    1. Engler, J. O. et al. Avian SDMs: current state, challenges, and opportunities. J. Avian Biol. 48, 1483–1504 (2017). Article Google Scholar 2. Rodríguez, J. P., Brotons, L., Bustamante, J. & Seoane, J. The application of predictive modelling of species distribution to biodiversity conservation. Divers. Distrib. 13, 243–251 (2007). Article Google Scholar 3. Brambilla, M. […] More

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    Metagenomic views of microbial dynamics influenced by hydrocarbon seepage in sediments of the Gulf of Mexico

    1. Kallmeyer, J., Pockalny, R., Adhikari, R. R., Smith, D. C. & D’Hondt, S. Global distribution of microbial abundance and biomass in subseafloor sediment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, 16213–16216, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1203849109 (2012). 2. Jørgensen, B. B. & Marshall, I. P. G. In Annual Review of Marine […] More

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    Rebuilding marine life

    1. OECD. The Ocean Economy in 2030 (OECD Publishing, 2016). 2. Duarte, C. M. et al. Will the oceans help feed humanity? Bioscience 59, 967–976 (2009). Google Scholar 3. Roberts, C. M. et al. Marine reserves can mitigate and promote adaptation to climate change. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 6167–6175 (2017). Google Scholar 4. […] More

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    On the repulsive interaction between localised vegetation patches in scarce environments

    The interaction between localised vegetation patches in arid and semi-arid landscapes has received only limited attention21. We show that the interaction between localised vegetation patches is always repulsive. Indeed, bounded states of vegetation patches are not allowed. We demonstrate that the repulsive nature of this interaction and the boundary conditions allow for the coexistence of […] More