On December 7, 2023, members of Daru, Peay, and Fukami Labs met to talk about the papers published in 2023 that we liked the most. The papers we selected are listed below. (If you are curious about the papers we picked in previous years, check out our 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, lists.)

Best papers of 2023


Allsup, Cassandra M., Isabelle George, and Richard A. Lankau. 2023. Shifting Microbial Communities Can Enhance Tree Tolerance to Changing Climates. Science 380 (6647): 835-840.
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Ardichvili, Alice Nadia, Nicolas Loeuille, and Vasilis Dakos. 2023. Evolutionary Emergence of Alternative Stable States in Shallow Lakes. Ecology Letters 26 (5): 692-705.
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Borin, Joshua M., Justin J. Lee, Adriana Lucia-Sanz, Krista R. Gerbino, Joshua S. Weitz, and Justin R. Meyer. 2023. Rapid Bacteria-Phage Coevolution Drives the Emergence of Multiscale Networks. Science 382 (6671): 674-678.
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Cao, Xiangkun Elvis, and Gladys Chepkirui Ngetich. 2023. The Need to Normalize Failure. Nature Reviews Chemistry 7 (2): 69-70.
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Chang, Chang-Yu, Djordje Bajić, Jean C. C. Vila, Sylvie Estrela, and Alvaro Sanchez. 2023. Emergent Coexistence in Multispecies Microbial Communities. Science 381 (6655): 343-348.
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Gralka, Matti, Shaul Pollak, and Otto X. Cordero. 2023. Genome Content Predicts the Carbon Catabolic Preferences of Heterotrophic Bacteria. Nature Microbiology 8 (10): 1799-1808.
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Huntley, Brian, Judy R. M. Allen, Matthew Forrest, Thomas Hickler, Ralf Ohlemüller, Joy S. Singarayer, and Paul J. Valdes. 2023. Global Biome Patterns of the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Journal of Biogeography 50 (8): 1352-1372.
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Kiesewetter, Kasey N., Leydiana Otano, and Michelle E. Afkhami. 2023. Fragmentation Disrupts Microbial Effects on Native Plant Community Productivity. Journal of Ecology 111 (6): 1292-1307.
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Levine, Jacob, Stephen Pacala, and Jonathan Levine. 2023. Competition for Time: Evidence for an Overlooked, Diversity-Maintaining Competitive Mechanism. Authorea Preprints, September 19, 2023.
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Lutz, Stefanie, Natacha Bodenhausen, Julia Hess, Alain Valzano-Held, Jan Waelchli, Gabriel Deslandes-Hérold, Klaus Schlaeppi, and Marcel G. A. van der Heijden. 2023. Soil Microbiome Indicators Can Predict Crop Growth Response to Large-Scale Inoculation with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi. Nature Microbiology 8 (12): 2277-2289.
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Neave, Erika F., Wang Cai, Maria Belén Arias, Lynsey R. Harper, Ana Riesgo, and Stefano Mariani. 2023. Trapped DNA Fragments in Marine Sponge Specimens Unveil North Atlantic Deep-Sea Fish Diversity. Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society 290 (2005): 20230771.
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Ogier, Jean-Claude, Raymond Akhurst, Noël Boemare, and Sophie Gaudriault. 2023. The Endosymbiont and the Second Bacterial Circle of Entomopathogenic Nematodes. Trends in Microbiology 31 (6): 629-643.
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Robinson, Moria L., Marjorie G. Weber, Micah G. Freedman, Evan Jordan, Sarah R. Ashlock, Jenna Yonenaga, and Sharon Y. Strauss. 2023. Macroevolution of Protective Coloration across Caterpillars Reflects Relationships with Host Plants. Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society 290 (1991): 20222293.
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Rohr, Jason R., Alexandra Sack, Sidy Bakhoum, Christopher B. Barrett, David Lopez-Carr, Andrew J. Chamberlin, David J. Civitello, et al. 2023. A Planetary Health Innovation for Disease, Food and Water Challenges in Africa. Nature 619 (7971): 782-787.
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Saarenpää, Sami, Or Shalev, Haim Ashkenazy, Vanessa Carlos, Derek Severi Lundberg, Detlef Weigel, and Stefania Giacomello. 2023. Spatial Metatranscriptomics Resolves Host-Bacteria-Fungi Interactomes. Nature Biotechnology, November.
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Sáez-Sandino, Tadeo, Pablo García-Palacios, Fernando T. Maestre, César Plaza, Emilio Guirado, Brajesh K. Singh, Juntao Wang, et al. 2023. The Soil Microbiome Governs the Response of Microbial Respiration to Warming across the Globe. Nature Climate Change 13 (12): 1382-1387.
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Spoon, Katie, Nicholas LaBerge, K. Hunter Wapman, Sam Zhang, Allison C. Morgan, Mirta Galesic, Bailey K. Fosdick, Daniel B. Larremore, and Aaron Clauset. 2023. Gender and Retention Patterns among U.S. Faculty. Science Advances 9 (42): eadi2205.
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Terui, Akira, Hirokazu Urabe, Masayuki Senzaki, and Bungo Nishizawa. 2023. Intentional Release of Native Species Undermines Ecological Stability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120 (7): e2218044120.
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Vandermeer, John, and Ivette Perfecto. 2023. Intransitivity as a Dynamic Assembly Engine of Competitive Communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120 (15): e2217372120.
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Wood, Eric M., Sevan Esaian, Christian Benitez, Philip J. Ethington, Travis Longcore, and Lars Y. Pomara. 2023. Historical Racial Redlining and Contemporary Patterns of Income Inequality Negatively Affect Birds, Their Habitat, and People in Los Angeles, California. Ornithological Applications, October, duad044.
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