Douglas W. Yu

Quantifying uncertainty of taxonomic placement in DNA barcoding and metabarcoding

This paper evaluates the probabilistic taxonomic placement method PROTAX across diverse datasets, showing it reliably quantifies species identification uncertainty but highlights challenges in environmental sample analysis.

Plant diversity accurately predicts insect diversity in two tropical landscapes

The paper uses metabarcoding to show plant diversity accurately predicts insect diversity in two tropical landscapes, supporting their use as proxies for conservation and ecological monitoring.

Evolution of passwords for cost-free, honest signalling between symbionts and hosts

The paper shows that cost-free, honest signals can evolve in mutualistic symbioses under soft selection, using a population-genetics model to explain how symbionts and hosts can communicate reliably without costly signals.

Higher fungal diversity is correlated with lower CO2 emissions from dead wood in a natural forest

The paper correlates higher fungal diversity in decomposing wood with lower CO2 emissions, suggesting a diversity effect on decomposition rates in a natural forest.

The Effectiveness of China’s National Forest Protection Program and National-level Nature Reserves, 2000 to 2010: PREPRINT

This study evaluates China's National Forest Protection Program and National-level Nature Reserves from 2000 to 2010, finding reduced deforestation rates within protected areas despite overall losses.