Achieving conservation and restoration outcomes through ecologically beneficial aquaculture.

A range of conservation and restoration tools are needed to safeguard the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. Aquaculture, the culturing of aquatic organisms, often contributes to the numerous stressors that aquatic ecosystems face, yet some aquaculture activities can also deliver ecological benefits. We reviewed the literature on aquaculture activities that may contribute to conservation and restoration outcomes, either by enhancing the persistence or recovery of one or more target species or by moving aquatic ecosystems toward a target state. We identified 12 ecologically beneficial outcomes achievable via aquaculture: species recovery, habitat restoration, habitat rehabilitation, habitat protection, bioremediation, assisted evolution, climate change mitigation, wild harvest replacement, coastal defense, removal of overabundant species, biological control, and ex situ conservation. This list may be expanded as new applications are discovered. Positive intentions do not guarantee positive ecological outcomes, so it is critical that potentially ecologically beneficial aquaculture activities be evaluated via clear and measurable indicators of success to reduce potential abuse by greenwashing. Unanimity on outcomes, indicators, and related terminology will bring the field of aquaculture-environment interactions into line with consensus standards in conservation and restoration ecology. Broad consensus will also aid the development of future certification schemes for ecologically beneficial aquaculture.

Se necesita una gama de herramientas de conservación y restauración para salvaguardar la estructura y función de los ecosistemas acuáticos. La acuacultura (el cultivo de organismos acuáticos) generalmente contribuye a los numerosos estresantes que soportan los ecosistemas acuáticos, aunque algunas actividades de la acuacultura también pueden proporcionar beneficios ecológicos. Revisamos la literatura sobre las actividades de acuacultura que pueden contribuir a los resultados de conservación y restauración, ya sea al incrementar la persistencia o recuperación de una o más especies objetivo o al llevar a los ecosistemas acuáticos hacia un estado objetivo. Identificamos doce resultados con beneficios ecológicos que pueden lograrse con la acuacultura: recuperación de la especie, recuperación del hábitat, restauración del hábitat, rehabilitación del hábitat, protección del hábitat, bioreparación, evolución asistida, mitigación del cambio climático, sustitución de la captura silvestre, defensa costera, eliminación de las especies sobreabundantes, control biológico y conservación ex situ. Esta lista puede expandirse conforme se descubren nuevas aplicaciones. Las intenciones positivas no garantizan resultados ecológicos positivos, así que es importante que se evalúen las actividades de acuacultura con un posible beneficio ecológico por medio de indicadores del éxito claros y medibles para reducir el abuso potencial por ecoblanqueo o greenwashing. La unanimidad en los resultados, indicadores y terminología relacionada armonizará las interacciones entre la acuacultura y el ambiente con los estándares de la conservación y la ecología de la restauración. Un consenso generalizado también ayudará con el desarrollo de futuros esquemas de certificación para la acuacultura con beneficios ecológicos. Obtención de resultados de conservación y restauración a través de la acuacultura con beneficios ecológicos.

The behavioral and neurobiological response to sound stress in salmon.

INTRODUCTION: Noise associated with human activities in aquatic environments can affect the physiology and behavior of aquatic species which may have consequences at the population and ecosystem levels. Low frequency sound is particularly stressful for fish, since it is an important factor in predator-prey interactions. Even though behavioral and physiological studies have been conducted to assess the effects of sound on fish species, neurobiological studies are still lacking. METHODS: In this study we exposed farmed salmon to low frequency sound for 5 minutes a day for 30 trials and conducted behavioral observations and tissue sampling before sound exposure (timepoint zero; T0) and after 1 (T1), 10 (T2), 20 (T3) and 30 (T4) exposures, to assess markers of stress. These included plasma cortisol, neuronal activity, monoaminergic signaling, and gene expression in 4 areas of the forebrain. RESULTS: We found that sound exposure induced an activation of the stress response by eliciting an initial startle behavioral response, together with increased plasma cortisol levels and a decrease in neuronal activity in the hypothalamic tubercular nuclei (TN). At T3 and T4 salmon showed a degree of habituation in their behavioral and cortisol response. However, at T4, salmon showed signs of chronic stress with increased serotonergic activity levels in the dorsolateral and dorsomedial pallium, the preoptic area, and the TN, as well as an inhibition of growth and reproduction transcripts in the TN. CONCLUSIONS: Together, our results suggest that prolonged exposure to sound results in chronic stress that leads to neurological changes which suggest a reduction of life fitness traits.

Host genetic resistance in Brassica napus: a valuable tool for the integrated management of the fungal pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans.

Management of plant disease in agro-ecosystems ideally relies on a combination of host genetic resistance, chemical control and cultural practices. Growers increasingly rely on chemical and genetic options but their relative benefits in disease control, yield and economic outcomes are rarely quantified. We explore this relationship for blackleg crown canker disease (caused by Leptosphaeria maculans), a major biotic constraint limiting canola production globally. Data from 20 field trials conducted from 2013 to 2015 in canola-growing regions of Australia were used to assess the effects of host resistance and fungicide treatment on blackleg severity, grain yield and gross margin. In the absence of fungicide, blackleg disease was 88% lower in the most resistant compared to the most susceptible blackleg resistance category. In the most susceptible resistance category, the most effective fungicide treatment significantly reduced blackleg severity (from 50% to 6%), and increased grain yield (478kg/ha, 41%) and gross margin (AU$120/ha, 17%). However, the mean benefits of fungicide tended to decrease with increasing levels of genetic resistance, to the point that yield, disease and gross margin benefits were close to zero in the most resistant cultivars. Overall, these findings suggest that fungicides can reduce blackleg severity, but the benefits of application strongly depend on associated levels of genetic resistance. Canola cultivars with higher genetic resistance reliably reduced blackleg disease and maintained grain yield without the associated cost of fungicide application. The intensification of canola production to meet increasing global demand will require strategies to sustainably manage and protect finite genetic resistance resources to control blackleg disease.

Reductions in Children's Blood Lead Levels from a Drinking-Water Intervention in Madagascar, Sub-Saharan Africa.

One in three children globally is estimated to have blood lead levels (BLL) at or above the BLL reference value of 5 µg/dL with increased burden falling on low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Within developed countries, aqueous lead is the predominant exposure route. However, aqueous lead exposure is rarely examined in the LMIC, leaving a gap in the literature that ignores a potentially significant route of exposure. Furthermore, limited lead-based remediation efforts around consumer products have been examined. This study investigates the importance of lead exposure from the water supply through a case study in Toamasina, Madagascar. The project measured aqueous lead and BLL of children pre- and postremediation efforts (i.e., removal of leaded pump components in hand pumps) to verify the impact of aqueous lead exposure within this community. Removal of the leaded pump components (i.e., piston and foot valves) and replacement with nonleaded components decreased aqueous lead levels below the World Health Organization provisional guideline of 10 µg/L in all but 4% of pumps tested. Measured BLL concentrations indicated a statistically significant decrease in BLL from pre- to postremediation. Furthermore, the remediation resulted in a decrease in BLL for 87% of children with the greatest changes in BLL observed for children with the highest preremediation concentrations. These findings point to a need for greater consideration of lead in drinking and cooking waters as an important exposure route in LMIC.

Genetic analysis reveals long-standing population differentiation and high diversity in the rust pathogen Melampsora lini.

A priority for research on infectious disease is to understand how epidemiological and evolutionary processes interact to influence pathogen population dynamics and disease outcomes. However, little is understood about how population adaptation changes across time, how sexual vs. asexual reproduction contribute to the spread of pathogens in wild populations and how diversity measured with neutral and selectively important markers correlates across years. Here, we report results from a long-term study of epidemiological and genetic dynamics within several natural populations of the Linum marginale-Melampsora lini plant-pathogen interaction. Using pathogen isolates collected from three populations of wild flax (L. marginale) spanning 16 annual epidemics, we probe links between pathogen population dynamics, phenotypic variation for infectivity and genomic polymorphism. Pathogen genotyping was performed using 1567 genome-wide SNP loci and sequence data from two infectivity loci (AvrP123, AvrP4). Pathogen isolates were phenotyped for infectivity using a differential set. Patterns of epidemic development were assessed by conducting surveys of infection prevalence in one population (Kiandra) annually. Bayesian clustering analyses revealed host population and ecotype as key predictors of pathogen genetic structure. Despite strong fluctuations in pathogen population size and severe annual bottlenecks, analysis of molecular variance revealed that pathogen population differentiation was relatively stable over time. Annually, varying levels of clonal spread (0-44.8%) contributed to epidemics. However, within populations, temporal genetic composition was dynamic with rapid turnover of pathogen genotypes, despite the dominance of only four infectivity phenotypes across the entire study period. Furthermore, in the presence of strong fluctuations in population size and migration, spatial selection may maintain pathogen populations that, despite being phenotypically stable, are genetically highly dynamic.

Metapopulation Structure Predicts Population Dynamics in the Cakile maritima-Alternaria brassicicola Host-Pathogen Interaction.

AbstractIn symbiotic interactions, spatiotemporal variation in the distribution or population dynamics of one species represents spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the landscape for the other. Such interdependent demographic dynamics result in situations where the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in determining ecological processes is complicated to decipher. Using a detailed survey of three metapopulations of the succulent plant Cakile maritima and the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola located along the southeastern Australian coast, we developed a series of statistical analyses-namely, synchrony analysis, patch occupancy dynamics, and a spatially explicit metapopulation model-to understand how habitat quality, weather conditions, dispersal, and spatial structure determine metapopulation dynamics. Climatic conditions are important drivers, likely explaining the high synchrony among populations. Host availability, landscape features facilitating dispersal, and habitat conditions also impact the occurrence and spread of disease. Overall, we show that the collection of extensive data on host and pathogen population dynamics, in combination with spatially explicit epidemiological modeling, makes it possible to accurately predict disease dynamics-even when there is extreme variability in host population dynamics. Finally, we discuss the importance of genetic information for predicting demographic dynamics in this pathosystem.

Mixed infections alter transmission potential in a fungal plant pathogen.

Infections by more than one strain of a pathogen predominate under natural conditions. Mixed infections can have significant, though often unpredictable, consequences for overall virulence, pathogen transmission and evolution. However, effects of mixed infection on disease development in plants often remain unclear and the critical factors that determine the outcome of mixed infections remain unknown. The fungus Zymoseptoria tritici forms genetically diverse infections in wheat fields. Here, for a range of pathogen traits, we experimentally decompose the infection process to determine how the outcomes and consequences of mixed infections are mechanistically realized. Different strains of Z. tritici grow in close proximity and compete in the wheat apoplast, resulting in reductions in growth of individual strains and in pathogen reproduction. We observed different outcomes of competition at different stages of the infection. Overall, more virulent strains had higher competitive ability during host colonization, and less virulent strains had higher transmission potential. We showed that within-host competition can have a major effect on infection dynamics and pathogen population structure in a pathogen and host genotype-specific manner. Consequently, mixed infections likely have a major effect on the development of septoria tritici blotch epidemics and the evolution of virulence in Z. tritici.

Health and Economic Consequences of Lead Exposure Associated with Products and Services Provided by the Informal Economy.

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the presence of an informal economy can lead to human exposure to toxic metals such as lead (Pb). This paper demonstrates the local health and economic benefits of modifying practices within the informal economic sector in Madagascar. Specifically, leaded components in 504 locally manufactured household water pumps were replaced with unleaded components. Prior to the intervention, 32% of the household systems exhibited lead concentrations above the World Health Organization (WHO) provisional drinking water guideline of 10 µg/L, but after the intervention, fewer than 3% of the systems were in exceedance. The reduction of lead concentration is modeled to reduce the fraction of children with elevated BLLs (>5 µg/dL) from 34 to 13%. The reduction in BLLs is estimated to provide an average economic benefit of US$11 800 per child based on predicted increases in lifetime productivity. This corresponds to a total benefit of US$8.7 million for the 730 children aged 1-5 associated with the pumps, representing a return on investment of greater than 1000-to-1. Results demonstrate how the formation of partnerships between public, private, and civil society entities, as suggested by UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, can realize important local economic and health benefits in LMICs.

Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Platelet Properties of Lipid Bioactives from Apple Cider By-Products.

The valorization of food industry by-products as sources of bioactive compounds is at the forefront of research in functional foods and nutraceuticals. This study focuses on bioactives of apple cider by-products (ACBPs) with putative cardio-protective properties. Total lipids (TLs) were extracted from ACBPs of apple varieties that are low (ACBP1), medium (ACBP2), and high (ACBP3) in tannins and were further separated into polar lipids (PLs) and neutral lipids (NLs). The functionality of these lipid extracts and of their HPLC-derived lipid fractions/PL subclasses were assessed in vitro against human platelet aggregation induced by the thrombotic and inflammatory platelet agonists platelet-activating factor (PAF) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP). The fatty acid profile of PLs and their most bioactive lipid fractions were evaluated by GC-MS analysis. The PL extracts exhibited higher specificity against the PAF-induced platelet aggregation compared to their anti-ADP effects, while TL and NL showed lower bioactivities in all ACBPs. HPLC analysis unveiled that the most bioactive PL from all ACBPs were those in PL fraction 3 containing phosphatidylcholines (PCs). PLs from all ACBPs and their PC bioactives were rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and especially in the essential omega-6 (n-6) linoleic acid (LA) and omega-3 (n-3) alpha linolenic acid (ALA), with favorably low values of the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio, thus providing a rationale for their higher anti-inflammatory bioactivities. Within this study, highly bioactive PL compounds with strong anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet properties were identified in ACBPs, which can be potentially utilized for producing cardio-protective functional foods and/or nutraceuticals.

Can natural gene drives be part of future fungal pathogen control strategies in plants?

Globally, fungal pathogens cause enormous crop losses and current control practices are not always effective, economical or environmentally sustainable. Tools enabling genetic management of wild pathogen populations could potentially solve many problems associated with plant diseases. A natural gene drive from a heterologous species can be used in the globally important cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum to remove pathogenic traits from contained populations of the fungus. The gene drive element became fixed in a freely crossing population in only three generations. Repeat-induced point mutation (RIP), a natural genome defence mechanism in fungi that causes C to T mutations during meiosis in highly similar sequences, may be useful to recall the gene drive following release, should a failsafe mechanism be required. We propose that gene drive technology is a potential tool to control plant pathogens once its efficacy is demonstrated under natural settings.

Phylogenetic signals and predictability in plant-soil feedbacks.

There is strong evidence for a phylogenetic signal in the degree to which species share co-evolved biotic partners and in the outcomes of biotic interactions. This implies there should be a phylogenetic signal in the outcome of feedbacks between plants and the soil microbiota they cultivate. However, attempts to identify a phylogenetic signal in plant-soil feedbacks have produced mixed results. Here we clarify how phylogenetic signals could arise in plant-soil feedbacks and use a recent compilation of data from feedback experiments to identify: whether there is a phylogenetic signal in the outcome of plant-soil feedbacks; and whether any signal arises through directional or divergent changes in feedback outcomes with evolutionary time. We find strong evidence for a divergent phylogenetic signal in feedback outcomes. Distantly related plant species show more divergent responses to each other's soil microbiota compared with closely related plant species. The pattern of divergence implies occasional co-evolutionary shifts in how plants interact with soil microbiota, with strongly contrasting feedback responses among some plant lineages. Our results highlight that it is difficult to predict feedback outcomes from phylogeny alone, other than to say that more closely related species tend to have more similar responses.

Resistance to natural and synthetic gene drive systems.

Scientists are rapidly developing synthetic gene drive elements intended for release into natural populations. These are intended to control or eradicate disease vectors and pests, or to spread useful traits through wild populations for disease control or conservation purposes. However, a crucial problem for gene drives is the evolution of resistance against them, preventing their spread. Understanding the mechanisms by which populations might evolve resistance is essential for engineering effective gene drive systems. This review summarizes our current knowledge of drive resistance in both natural and synthetic gene drives. We explore how insights from naturally occurring and synthetic drive systems can be integrated to improve the design of gene drives, better predict the outcome of releases and understand genomic conflict in general.

The long-term maintenance of a resistance polymorphism through diffuse interactions.

Plant resistance (R) genes are a crucial component in plant defence against pathogens. Although R genes often fail to provide durable resistance in an agricultural context, they frequently persist as long-lived balanced polymorphisms in nature. Standard theory explains the maintenance of such polymorphisms through a balance of the costs and benefits of resistance and virulence in a tightly coevolving host-pathogen pair. However, many plant-pathogen interactions lack such specificity. Whether, and how, balanced polymorphisms are maintained in diffusely interacting species is unknown. Here we identify a naturally interacting R gene and effector pair in Arabidopsis thaliana and its facultative plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae. The protein encoded by the R gene RPS5 recognizes an AvrPphB homologue (AvrPphB2) and exhibits a balanced polymorphism that has been maintained for over 2 million years (ref. 3). Consistent with the presence of an ancient balanced polymorphism, the R gene confers a benefit when plants are infected with P. syringae carrying avrPphB2 but also incurs a large cost in the absence of infection. RPS5 alleles are maintained at intermediate frequencies in populations globally, suggesting ubiquitous selection for resistance. However, the presence of P. syringae carrying avrPphB is probably insufficient to explain the RPS5 polymorphism. First, avrPphB homologues occur at very low frequencies in P. syringae populations on A. thaliana. Second, AvrPphB only rarely confers a virulence benefit to P. syringae on A. thaliana. Instead, we find evidence that selection for RPS5 involves multiple non-homologous effectors and multiple pathogen species. These results and an associated model suggest that the R gene polymorphism in A. thaliana may not be maintained through a tightly coupled interaction involving a single coevolved R gene and effector pair. More likely, the stable polymorphism is maintained through complex and diffuse community-wide interactions.

Where art thou louse? A snapshot of attachment location preferences in salmon lice on Atlantic salmon hosts in sea cages.

Problematic sea lice infestations on farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) have motivated extensive research and development into new methods to prevent, monitor and control sea lice. Most of these technologies require detailed information on the behaviour, spatial distribution and demography of lice on host fish. This study investigated how salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) infestation density varies across the host's surface under sea cage farming conditions. Lice abundance, demography and attachment location were tracked over time, with repeated sampling of 300 individually tagged salmon across three replicate experimental sea cages. The data reveal clear differences in attachment locations according to sex and stage, but with an overall preference for the dorsal surface among mobile stages-dorsal head for adult females and dorsal-posterior section for males and pre-adults. Total lice abundance was highly variable between repeated measures of individual fish, consistent with frequent host-switching or mortality. Total lice numbers also declined between sampling dates, likely due to handling, with lost mobile lice being almost exclusively adult males. As the distribution of sea lice on hosts is likely determined by numerous factors, future image-based automated detection systems should be validated in settings that reflect the complex host-parasite interactions that occur in open farming systems.

Novel model-based clustering reveals ecologically differentiated bacterial genomes across a large climate gradient.

A pervasive challenge in microbial ecology is understanding the genetic level where ecological units can be differentiated. Ecological differentiation often occurs at fine genomic levels, yet it is unclear how to utilise ecological information to define ecotypes given the breadth of environmental variation among microbial taxa. Here, we present an analytical framework that infers clusters along genome-based microbial phylogenies according to shared environmental responses. The advantage of our approach is the ability to identify genomic clusters that best fit complex environmental information whilst characterising cluster niches through model predictions. We apply our method to determine climate-associated ecotypes in populations of nitrogen-fixing symbionts using whole genomes, explicitly sampled to detect climate differentiation across a heterogeneous landscape. Although soil and plant host characteristics strongly influence distribution patterns of inferred ecotypes, our flexible statistical method enabled us to identify climate-associated genomic clusters using environmental data, providing solid support for ecological specialisation in soil symbionts.

Gene drives in plants: opportunities and challenges for weed control and engineered resilience.

Plant species, populations and communities are under threat from climate change, invasive pathogens, weeds and habitat fragmentation. Despite considerable research effort invested in genome engineering for crop improvement, the development of genetic tools for the management of wild plant populations has rarely been given detailed consideration. Gene drive systems that allow direct genetic management of plant populations via the spread of fitness-altering genetic modifications could be of great utility. However, despite the rapid development of synthetic tools and their enormous promise, little explicit consideration has been given to their application in plants and, to date, they remain untested. This article considers the potential utility of gene drives for the management of wild plant populations, and examines the factors that might influence the design, spread and efficacy of synthetic drives. To gain insight into optimal ways to design and deploy synthetic drive systems, we investigate the diversity of mechanisms underlying natural gene drives and their dynamics within plant populations and species. We also review potential approaches for engineering gene drives and discuss their potential application to plant genomes. We highlight the importance of considering the impact of plant life-history and genetic architecture on the dynamics of drive, investigate the potential for different types of resistance evolution, and touch on the ethical, regulatory and social challenges ahead.

Assessing the durability and efficiency of landscape-based strategies to deploy plant resistance to pathogens.

Genetically-controlled plant resistance can reduce the damage caused by pathogens. However, pathogens have the ability to evolve and overcome such resistance. This often occurs quickly after resistance is deployed, resulting in significant crop losses and a continuing need to develop new resistant cultivars. To tackle this issue, several strategies have been proposed to constrain the evolution of pathogen populations and thus increase genetic resistance durability. These strategies mainly rely on varying different combinations of resistance sources across time (crop rotations) and space. The spatial scale of deployment can vary from multiple resistance sources occurring in a single cultivar (pyramiding), in different cultivars within the same field (cultivar mixtures) or in different fields (mosaics). However, experimental comparison of the efficiency (i.e. ability to reduce disease impact) and durability (i.e. ability to limit pathogen evolution and delay resistance breakdown) of landscape-scale deployment strategies presents major logistical challenges. Therefore, we developed a spatially explicit stochastic model able to assess the epidemiological and evolutionary outcomes of the four major deployment options described above, including both qualitative resistance (i.e. major genes) and quantitative resistance traits against several components of pathogen aggressiveness: infection rate, latent period duration, propagule production rate, and infectious period duration. This model, implemented in the R package landsepi, provides a new and useful tool to assess the performance of a wide range of deployment options, and helps investigate the effect of landscape, epidemiological and evolutionary parameters. This article describes the model and its parameterisation for rust diseases of cereal crops, caused by fungi of the genus Puccinia. To illustrate the model, we use it to assess the epidemiological and evolutionary potential of the combination of a major gene and different traits of quantitative resistance. The comparison of the four major deployment strategies described above will be the objective of future studies.

A nonnative habitat-former mitigates native habitat loss for endemic reef fishes.

Animals that select the best available habitats are most likely to succeed in degraded environments, but ecological change can create evolutionarily unfamiliar habitats that may be under- or over-utilized by native fauna. In temperate coastal waters, eutrophication and grazing have driven a global decline in native seaweeds and facilitated the establishment of nonnative seaweeds that provide novel macrophyte habitat. We tested whether a nonnative kelp canopy (wakame Undaria pinnatifida) functions as a viable habitat or ecological trap for several endemic reef fishes on urchin-grazed reefs in southern Australia. We assessed the willingness of fish to utilize native vs. wakame kelp canopy via a laboratory habitat choice experiment and by recording natural recruitment to specially constructed boulder reefs with manipulated kelp canopy. We also compared fish communities on natural reefs using a before-after-control-impact survey of wakame patches, and to assess the quality of wakame habitat for resident fish, compared fitness metrics for fish collected from habitats with native vs. wakame kelp canopy. Endemic fishes did not distinguish between the native or wakame canopy but preferred both to barren reef habitats. On urchin-grazed natural reefs, fish occurred in higher abundance and diversity where seasonal wakame canopy was present. Fitness metrics in fish collected from wakame patches were comparable to those in fish from adjacent native kelp patches. These findings indicate that the nonnative canopy provides a viable habitat for endemic fish and may play a role in sustaining native fauna populations in this degraded ecosystem. More broadly, we recommend that managers consider the role of nonnative habitats within the context of environmental change, as endemic fauna may benefit from nonnative habitat-formers in areas where their native counterparts cannot persist.

Addressing the Challenges of Pathogen Evolution on the World's Arable Crops.

Advances in genomic and molecular technologies coupled with an increasing understanding of the fine structure of many resistance and infectivity genes, have opened up a new era of hope in controlling the many plant pathogens that continue to be a major source of loss in arable crops. Some new approaches are under consideration including the use of nonhost resistance and the targeting of critical developmental constraints. However, the major thrust of these genomic and molecular approaches is to enhance the identification of resistance genes, to increase their ease of manipulation through marker and gene editing technologies and to lock a range of resistance genes together in simply manipulable resistance gene cassettes. All these approaches essentially continue a strategy that assumes the ability to construct genetic-based resistance barriers that are insurmountable to target pathogens. Here we show how the recent advances in knowledge and marker technologies can be used to generate more durable disease resistance strategies that are based on broad evolutionary principles aimed at presenting pathogens with a shifting, landscape of fluctuating directional selection.

AgroEcoList 1.0: A checklist to improve reporting standards in ecological research in agriculture.

Many publications lack sufficient background information (e.g. location) to be interpreted, replicated, or reused for synthesis. This impedes scientific progress and the application of science to practice. Reporting guidelines (e.g. checklists) improve reporting standards. They have been widely taken up in the medical sciences, but not in ecological and agricultural research. Here, we use a community-centred approach to develop a reporting checklist (AgroEcoList 1.0) through surveys and workshops with 23 experts and the wider agroecological community. To put AgroEcoList in context, we also assessed the agroecological community's perception of reporting standards in agroecology. A total of 345 researchers, reviewers, and editors, responded to our survey. Although only 32% of respondents had prior knowledge of reporting guidelines, 76% of those that had said guidelines improved reporting standards. Overall, respondents agreed on the need of AgroEcolist 1.0; only 24% of respondents had used reporting guidelines before, but 78% indicated they would use AgroEcoList 1.0. We updated AgroecoList 1.0 based on respondents' feedback and user-testing. AgroecoList 1.0 consists of 42 variables in seven groups: experimental/sampling set-up, study site, soil, livestock management, crop and grassland management, outputs, and finances. It is presented here, and is also available on github (https://github.com/AgroecoList/Agroecolist). AgroEcoList 1.0 can serve as a guide for authors, reviewers, and editors to improve reporting standards in agricultural ecology. Our community-centred approach is a replicable method that could be adapted to develop reporting checklists in other fields. Reporting guidelines such as AgroEcoList can improve reporting standards and therefore the application of research to practice, and we recommend that they are adopted more widely in agriculture and ecology.