The Avian Phylogenomics Project, an international team with more than 200 researchers worked in a collective effort to sequence the whole genome of 45 bird species, comprising the main clades of modern birds. The project published 28 papers, in journals like Science, Gigascience and Genome Biology, in just one day! One of their key papers is Jarvis et al., “Whole -genome analysis resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds”. Among their main findings are: 1) Two events of speciation happened around 66 mya, just after the dinosaurs went extinct, giving origin to most of the birds we know nowadays; 2) Avian genome is very reduced, with few repetitive DNA; 3) Vocal learning evolved independently, at least twice; 4) Tooth loss happened from lost enamel mutations, around 116 mya. Nonetheless, the most important steps accomplished by the group, is a better representation of the phylogenetic relationship of birds, with some very impressive changes, e.g. falcons are closer relatives to parrots than to other group of prey birds like hawks. Several other fields of biology must benefit from this better solved piece in the puzzle of the tree of life, especially fields like ecology, which in the last years has investigated the phylogenetic structure of communities as a way to understand patterns of diversity on Earth and the processes determining them. Maybe two last very important messages from Jarvis et al. (and the other of papers resulting from this project) are that: 1) basic science (e.g. taxonomy) is an essential tool for the next big steps toward understanding life on Earth; and 2) improvements on scientific knowledge are more and more related to collective efforts of huge networks of scientist and institutions around the world, working together in ambitious projects.

– Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni

Some of my favorites from 2014:

• The first meta-analysis of intraspecific diversity effects on higher-order processes.
• Grazers influence the genetic structure of phytoplankton in a pelagic predator-prey interaction.
• Ecological and evolutionary potential of plant traits related to nutrient cycling.
• The atlas of human admixture history.

– Kylla Benes

Forget horses, 2014 has been the year of the lichen. And although most readers are probably uninclined to overthrow thousands of years of Chinese tradition to make it so, I’m here to tell you why it’s worth the effort. Ecologists studying lichens have worked hard this year to push their traditionally esoteric research subject out into mainstream ecology. In honor of 2014’s listicle-mania, here are the top four ways that lichenologists have really broken the mold. You won’t believe what they found…

4. Lichens impact ecosystems at both micro and macroscales. From Porada et al comes a brand-new estimation of how lichens contribute to global biogeochemical cycles. Zooming in, Delgado-Baquerizo et al show that lichen species in biological soil crusts can cause fine-scale variation in the nutrients and microbes that reside under them.

3. Lichens are great for testing general ecological theory and models, both new and old. Pastore et al found no evidence for a competition-colonization tradeoff in the life-history traits of lichens inhabiting rocks over a 30+ year experiment. Time to lay this old idea to rest? From Ruete et al comes a cool new model for estimating dispersal rates in a metapopulation that is at disequilibrium from presence/absence data, patch ages, and past distributions. Because really, when aren’t we in a disequillibrial state? And yes, they tested it with lichens because epiphytes are great models of meta-structure.

2. We have discovered that lichens have traits too! Farber et al found that the performance of lichens with light-absorbing versus light-reflecting pigments recapitulated the distribution of these species along a vertical light gradient in boreal tree canopies. Lichens, however, may be more variable in their traits than plants or animals. Asplund & Wardle found that the community-level response of lichen N and P-content to a nutrient gradient occurs mainly intra-specifically, and not because of species turnover. Perhaps fungi are more flexible?

1. It’s been a great year for lichens’ better half- the algae and cyanobacteria that do all the photosynthesizing in the relationship. Although historically underappreciated by lichenologists, this year saw a barrage of papers exploring diversity of these “photobionts”, from across whole communities and large taxonomic groups (Lindgren et al, Nyati et al, Sadowska-Des et al) to genetic diversity within a single lichen individual (Dal Grande et al). It’s becoming increasingly evident that partner specificity and local adaptation among photobionts is a key determinant of whether a lichen-forming fungal species has a broad (Werth & Sork, Muggia et al) or narrow distribution (Dal Grande et al). With increasing interest in the ecology of microbial systems, the role of symbiosis in the community ecology of lichens is ripe for research. If 2014 was the year of the lichen, 2015 will be for their algae.

– Jes Coyle

2014 by the numbers:

This is what a hero looks like (Malagidris sofina)

221 – the number of new species described by CalAcademy of Sciences this year. I was particularly charmed by the description of the defensive behavior of the Hero Ant of Madagascar (Malagidris sofina), which hurls itself at invaders, kamikaze-style, knocking them off the nest. See for yourself.

2,218 – Number of plants and animals currently listed as threatened or endangered by the Endangered Species Act. There is an active recovery plan for about half of those.

1 – Number of species delisted under the ESA during 2014. The Island night lizard (Xantusia riversiana), the poster child of this post, was originally listed in 1977, and has benefitted from the removal of invasive mammals from the Channel Islands, and is considered recovered.

90% – Estimated population losses for the Monarch butterfly over the past two decades. They are now being considered for ESA listing.

1.6 million – Area (km²) proposed in 2014 as additions to marine protected areas worldwide, including Fiji, Gabon, Palau, and the US.

– Emily Grason

December 30, 2014