Brenda Ratoni

Eleven countries make up 77% of submissions to _Proceedings B_, and these countries are all from the so-called Global North. We know that there are excellent scientists doing outstanding science outside of these eleven countries, so why aren’t we seeing more of it? The goal of this special feature is to showcase the excellent science from parts of the world that are underrepresented in _Proceedings B_ and the scientists doing the work. The scientists presenting in this seminar epitomize the 43 papers in this issue with their focus on global governance inequities, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, a focus on inclusion of local stakeholders, the impact of gene loss for conservation, and an emphasis on aquatic and terrestrial diversity in parts of the world that are less well studied. We hope that through this process there will be a growing recognition of the impactful science that has been overlooked in these underrepresented areas. Banner image: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Marble_2002.png) Illuminating the mystery of thylacine extinction: a role for relaxed selection and gene loss Gene loss shapes lineage-specific traits but is often overlooked in species survival. In this study, we investigate the role of ancestral gene loss using the extinction icon—thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). While studies of neutral genetic variation indicate a population decline before extinction, the impact of thylacine-specific ancestral gene losses remains unexplored. The availability of a chromosomal-level genome of the extinct thylacine offers a unique opportunity for such comparative studies. Here, we leverage palaeogenomic data to compare gene presence/absence patterns between the Tasmanian devil and thylacine. We discovered ancestral (between 13–1 Ma) loss of SAMD9L, HSD17B13, CUZD1 and VWA7 due to multiple gene-inactivating mutations, corroborated by short-read sequencing. The timing of gene loss mirrors the thylacine’s shift towards hypercarnivory and increased body size. Notably, the loss of SAMD9 correlates with a carnivorous diet. Our genome-wide analysis reveals olfactory receptor loss and relaxed selection, aligning with reduced olfactory lobes in the thylacine, indicating olfaction is not its primary hunting sense. By integrating palaeogenomic data with comparative genomics, our study reveals ancestral gene losses and their impact on species survival and resilience to environmental changes. Our approach can be extended to other extinct and endangered species, helping to identify genetic factors for conservation efforts. The microbiology of Uganda’s large freshwater lakes experiencing anthropogenic and climatic perturbations: why it matters—a review Intensification of pollution of African water resources due to human activities together with climate change has serious implications for Africa’s blue economy, biodiversity and human health. Despite these overwhelming threats, there is limited research as evidenced by the underrepresentation of Africa-based data in global ecological and biochemical models. This review, therefore, aims to highlight key challenges and existing research gaps, particularly in Ugandan freshwater ecosystems. We focus on lake microbiology as this scientific field has been greatly underrepresented. Aquatic microorganisms are situated at the base of lake food webs and thus play crucial roles in the evolution and maintenance of water quality, attenuation of pollutants, and control of biogeochemical cycling through the microbial loop. Until now, the microbiology of Ugandan lakes has not been systematically studied. Thus, many open fundamental microbial ecology questions need to be urgently addressed to generate valuable information to advance future research, education, management and policy in Uganda and beyond. These include, but are not limited to: identification of microbial taxa and functional genes in relation to anthropogenic and climatic influence; seasonal and spatial variation in species diversity and functions; diversity and functions of planktonic, sediment, biofilm and mat communities; antimicrobial resistance burden; plastisphere communities; and geomicrobiology. Size-dependent variation in thermal tolerance among tropical bee species Thermal tolerance is a key determinant of an organism’s ability to survive and adapt to environmental changes, particularly in ectothermic insects, which rely on ambient temperature for physiological regulation. While recent research has advanced our understanding of thermal tolerance in insects, particularly in temperate environments, the roles of sociality and morphological traits in shaping this tolerance remain poorly understood in tropical bee species. In this sense, bees exhibit diverse social structures and morphological variations, offering a valuable opportunity to explore how these factors affect thermal tolerance. Here, we examined whether sociality and body size explain variations in thermal tolerance across 43 bee species (five social species and 38 solitary species) inhabiting a coastal environment in Mexico. Our findings revealed that smaller bees tend to have broader thermal tolerance ranges, characterized by the differences between critical thermal maximum (CTmax) and critical thermal minimum (CTmin). Although none of the thermal tolerance metrics differed between social and solitary species, our results highlight size-dependent thermal tolerance differences among bee species, suggesting that small-bodied species are more resilient to environmental fluctuations. Integrating these insights could help predict how variation in thermal tolerance among bees may affect their pollination services under future climate change scenarios. Global inequities in pesticide legislation: nearly half of pesticides approved in major crops in Latin America are not allowed in the European Union Pesticide use is a core strategy to control agricultural pests. Although international treaties and health recommendations call for banning hazardous pesticides, globally harmonized pesticide governance remains elusive. In Latin America (LATAM), the main net food exporter worldwide, agricultural pesticide use has increased by approximately 500% since 1990, compared with only approximately 3% in Europe. To assess the environmental and health rigour of LATAM’s pesticide legislation, we reviewed active ingredients (AIs) approved for ten major crops, and AIs banned at national level, in eight LATAM countries, assessed their hazardousness according to international standards, and legal status in the European Union (EU) and explored sources of variation in the number of AIs approved in LATAM. We identified 523 AIs approved and 236 banned in LATAM; approximately 50% of the approved and approximately 85% of the banned AIs in LATAM were either not approved or prohibited in the EU. Higher crop production and, to a lesser extent, export value were linked to more AIs approved in LATAM. These findings imply weaker regulatory frameworks for hazardous pesticides in LATAM, reflecting more permissive environmental policies compared with the EU. This reinforces the urgency of addressing asymmetries in pesticide governance and rethinking the prevailing agricultural paradigm.

Plant–pollinator interactions are essential to ecosystem functioning, yet the mechanisms that determine why some plant species become highly connected within interaction networks remain insufficiently understood, particularly in tropical coastal systems. Here, we examine how multiple plant traits predict the interactive role of species within a bee–plant network in a coastal ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. Using an existing dataset comprising 35 plant species and 47 bee species, we quantified each plant’s interactive role through species degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality. We then evaluated how six traits (i.e., flower number, flower size, flower color, number of stamens, plant height, and life form) influence these network positions. Our results show that four traits significantly predicted plant interactive roles. Plants surrounded by more open flowers and those with larger flowers interacted with a greater diversity of bee species, indicating that resource detectability and accessibility strongly shape visitation patterns. Herbaceous species also exhibited higher interactive roles than woody plants, likely due to their rapid growth, abundant and synchronous flowering, and predictable resource availability in dynamic coastal environments. Additionally, yellow-flowered species received disproportionately more visits and achieved higher interactive roles, consistent with known sensory biases of bees toward yellow wavelengths. In contrast, plant height and stamen number showed no detectable influence on network position. Overall, our findings demonstrate that a combination of vegetative and floral traits (particularly those signaling abundant, accessible, and visually detectable resources) drives the emergence of key plant species within bee–plant networks. Integrating plant traits with network metrics provides a powerful framework for identifying species that sustain pollinator diversity and for predicting community responses to environmental change.

Studies at local spatial scales have shown that the generalist honeybee Apis mellifera L. can strongly affect the structural organization and properties of pollination networks. However, there is still little knowledge on how the connectivity of the honeybee within networks (i.e., interactive role) could affect pollination networks at a global scale. To fill this gap, we evaluated how the interactive role of A. mellifera could affect niche overlap, specialization, and robustness of pollination networks. We used 109 weighted pollination networks spread across about 94 degrees of latitude and 227 degrees of longitude. We developed a new standardized framework based on species removal to assess the impact of the honeybee on plant-pollinator networks. We found that when the honeybee was removed from the networks, plant species had less niche overlap (i.e., shared fewer interactions via their pollinators) and the networks became more specialized and more robust to species extinctions. Our findings indicate that A. mellifera’s effects on pollination networks vary geographically and could influence several ecological and evolutionary factors acting at local scales, including pollination services. We hope this contribution will stimulate new macroecological studies involving abundant and generalist species and their functional roles within ecological communities.