PeerJ – Biodiversity and Conservation section

19 September 2018

Potential changes in the distribution of Carnegiea gigantea under future scenarios

Fabio Albuquerque, Blas Benito, Miguel Ángel Macias Rodriguez, Caitlin Gray

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Bruno Marino –– The iconic towering Saguaro, seemingly timeless and unchanging, is vulnerable to climate change. The work by Albuquerque and colleagues provide new insights into how the saguaro may fare under changing climate across the desert landscape of the future. Indigenous Peoples, desert ecologists, policymakers and the public will find this study of relevance when considering the impacts of global warming on the iconic cactus.

29 August 2018

Detection and phylogenetic analysis of adenoviruses occurring in a single anole species

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Fernando Spilki –– The manuscript describes 3 different clades of adenoviruses in Anolis sagrei lizards from the Bahamas and Cayman islands.

22 August 2018

Global mapping of potential natural vegetation: an assessment of machine learning algorithms for estimating land potential

Section Editor rating: 7 / 10

Patricia Gandini –– An interesting tool for biodiversity management

14 August 2018

Multilocus molecular systematics of the circumtropical reef-fish genus Abudefduf (Pomacentridae): history, geography and ecology of speciation

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Tomas Hrbek –– A near complete phylogeny of the group, and a fine study that makes initial strides in disentangling the potential drivers of differences in speciation rates between benthivorous and planktivorous clades.

26 July 2018

Climate-induced phenological shift of apple trees has diverse effects on pollinators, herbivores and natural enemies

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Christian Hof –– It investigates, based on experiments, the consequences of phenological shifts for arthropods at different trophic levels.

13 July 2018

Genetic diversity and population structure of the endangered basal angiosperm Brasenia schreberi (Cabombaceae) in China

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Alastair Culham –– This is thoprough research on a generally neglected topic. Aquatic macrophytes are under-studied with molecular techniques due to the risks of contamination from aquatic algae. The combination of population genetics, geographic pattern analysis and conservation make this paper novel and particularly interesting.

11 July 2018

Genetic flow among olive populations within the Mediterranean basin

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Marion Röder –– The authors present results about the genetic diversity, gene flow and population structure of olive trees in the Mediterranean region.

9 July 2018

A Pan-Amazonian species delimitation: high species diversity within the genus Amazophrynella (Anura: Bufonidae)

Section Editor rating: 8 / 10

Patricia Gandini –– The paper contribute to the knowledge of an the Amazonian Biodiversity and of an unknown Amazonian anfibia

5 July 2018

Who bears the cost of forest conservation?

Section Editor rating: 7 / 10

Patricia Gandini –– Critical an important issue worldwide

3 July 2018

Spatial changes in zooplankton communities in a strong human-mediated river ecosystem

Section Editor rating: 7 / 10

Patricia Gandini –– New findings in an important and scarce investigated subject