It’s Friday and that means that it’s time for our Friday link dump, where we highlight some recent papers (and other stuff) that we found interesting but didn’t have the time to write an entire post about. If you think there’s something we missed, or have something to say, please share in the comments section!

Some cool articles from the latest issue of Ecology:

• Plant functional traits as determinants of population stability
• A fire-driven shift from forest to non-forest: evidence for alternative stable states?

– Benno Simmons

An article published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B uses historical data on different insect families to examine the contribution of different adaptations to their taxonomic richness.  The team, led by David Nicholson from the University of York in the U.K., found that metamorphosis, and to a lesser extent the presence of wings, had the greatest effect on the diversification of insects. – Nate Johnson

Following Nate’s indication, take a look at the Proceedings of the Royal Society B special issue: “Evolutionary ecology of specialization: insights from phylogenetic analysis”.

Last week, Nature published an interesting comment paper on the Extend Synthesis of Evolution (we have a post on this subject here), “Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?” The paper is authored by both, scientists pro and against the new extend synthesis.

– Vinicius Bastazini. 

October 10, 2014