Ecological and evolutionary genomics (EEG) aims to link gene functions and genomic features to phenotypes and ecological factors. Although the rapid development of technologies allows central questions to be addressed at an unprecedented level of molecular detail, they do not alleviate one of the major challenges of EEG, which is that a large fraction of genes remains without any annotation. He...

In spatial database, geographic information system (GIS) technology and system engineering theory, the hydro-ecological spatial database was built, and the corresponding hydro-ecological spatial database management information system was designed and developed. From aspects of the data organization and classification, the overall structure of the database, database construction processes and da...

www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America H have been transforming the environment to support production and cultural functions for thousands of years, yet until recently, most ecologists had not been involved in the design of these intensively managed landscapes. The publication of Ian McHarg’s Design with nature in 1969 challenged landscape designers to provide an ecologi...

Humans receive multiple benefits from various landscapes that foster ecological services and aesthetic attractiveness. In this study, a hybrid framework was proposed to evaluate ecological and aesthetic values of five landscape types in Houguanhu Region of central China. Data from the public aesthetic survey and professional ecological assessment were converted into a two-dimensional coordinate...

In past decades, ecological services and functions of alpine grassland in the Three-River Headwater Region (TRHR), Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, have been severely degraded due to overgrazing and overuse of yak dung as a fuel. Therefore, the eco-migration project has been implemented by the national government for improving eco-environmental quality in this region. This paper examines the carbon cyc...

Because obesity is associated with diverse chronic diseases, little attention has been directed to the multiple beneficial functions of adipose tissue. Adipose tissue not only provides energy for growth, reproduction and immune function, but also secretes and receives diverse signaling molecules that coordinate energy allocation between these functions in response to ecological conditions. Impo...

Microorganisms occupy a myriad of ecological niches that show an astonishing diversity. The molecular mechanisms underlying microbes' ecological diversity remain a fundamental conundrum in evolutionary biology. Evidence points to that the secretion of a particular set of proteins mediates microbes' interaction with the environment. Several systems are involved in this secretion, including the S...

As goose populations increase in abundance, their influence on ecological processes is increasing. We review the evidence for key ecological functions of wild goose populations in Eurasia and North America, including aquatic invertebrate and plant propagule transport, nutrient deposition in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the influence of goose populations on vegetation biomass, carbon stor...

Beneficial symbioses are widespread and diverse in the functions they provide to the host ranging from nutrition to protection. However, these partnerships with symbionts can be costly for the host. Such costs, so called "direct costs", arise from a trade-off between allocating resources to symbiosis and other functions such as reproduction or growth. Ecological costs may also exist when symbio...

This Highlight covers the chemical ecology of bryozoans, primarily the ecological functions of bryozoan natural products. The Highlight is arranged taxonomically, according to the bryozoan Treatise classification (P. Bock, Bryozoa Homepage, 2006, http://bryozoa.net).