Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Dispersal limitation and fire feedback maintain mesic savannas in Madagascar: Reply","authors":"Nikunj Goel,&nbsp;Julie C. Aleman,&nbsp;A. Carla Staver","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70332","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70332","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Savannas, characterized by a continuous flammable C₄ grassy layer interspersed with woody vegetation, are widespread across the tropics, ranging from open grasslands to grassy woodlands (Oliveras &amp; Malhi, <span>2016</span>; Veldman et al., <span>2015</span>). Despite their ubiquity, the origin and maintenance of savannas are fiercely debated. This is particularly true in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. Some argue that these grassy ecosystems can climatically support closed-canopy forests and, consequently, are likely a product of anthropogenic deforestation over the last two millennia (Humbert, <span>1949</span>; Joseph et al., <span>2024</span>). Others challenge the deforestation hypothesis (Bond et al., <span>2008</span>, <span>2023</span>; Phelps et al., <span>2022</span>; Solofondranohatra et al., <span>2020</span>; Vorontsova et al., <span>2016</span>), arguing that paleoecological and phylogeographic data suggest that these high-rainfall grassy ecosystems might be ancient and predate human arrival.</p><p>To reconcile the scientific evidence supporting these opposing viewpoints, we proposed an ecological mechanism—range pinning—to explain how the savannas in Madagascar could have been naturally maintained in mesic regions that can climatically support forests (Goel, Van Vleck, et al., <span>2020</span>). In particular, we showed that the combination of dispersal limitation and fire-vegetation feedback could have restricted Eastern rainforests from expanding onto the Central Highlands and other mesic regions of Madagascar.</p><p>Joseph and Seymour (<span>2023</span>) (hereafter referred to as J&amp;S) criticized our paper (1) for making what they characterize as incorrect model assumptions, (2) for drawing inferences based on sparse paleoecological data, and (3) for citing papers critiqued by J&amp;S elsewhere (Joseph &amp; Seymour, <span>2021</span>, <span>2022</span>). Here, we address the first two concerns. Bond et al. (<span>2023</span>) have published a reply to address J&amp;S's third concern, showing that most of their claims are not supported by accumulating published evidence.</p><p>While human activity likely has intensified fire regimes and landscape openness in Madagascar's Central Highlands over the last two millennia, assuming that Malagasy grassy ecosystems were entirely forested before human settlement contradicts both empirical and theoretical studies of savanna–forest coexistence. Instead, these grassy ecosystems exhibit resilience to forest expansion across millennia, perhaps in part due to range pinning. These ancient ecosystems are worth our attention and care.</p><p>Nikunj Goel conducted biome simulations. Julie C. Aleman collated paleo evidence. All authors wrote the manuscript.</p><p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p><p>Data and code (Goel, <span>2025</span>) are available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16385547.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70332","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecology of community reassembly: Movements and diets of megafauna during a decade of restoration in Mozambique","authors":"Matthew C. Hutchinson,&nbsp;Reena H. Walker,&nbsp;Joel O. Abraham,&nbsp;Justine A. Becker,&nbsp;Dominique D. Gonçalves,&nbsp;Ciara M. Nutter,&nbsp;Johan Pansu,&nbsp;Erin M. Phillips,&nbsp;Arjun B. Potter,&nbsp;Beto Soares Tenente,&nbsp;Marc E. Stalmans,&nbsp;Ryan A. Long,&nbsp;Robert M. Pringle","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70386","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70386","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The last decade has brought a worldwide surge of interest in rewilding—the repopulation of large herbivores and carnivores—as a strategy for conserving species and reviving ecosystem functions. Rewilding initiatives, if closely monitored, can provide unique insights into the ecology of the world's largest animals at otherwise impossible spatial and temporal scales. Capitalizing on these opportunities, and developing a knowledge base to guide future restoration efforts, requires the collection and dissemination of long-term data that document community reassembly. To date, such data are virtually nonexistent: most megafaunal restoration projects are nascent and/or have not been rigorously monitored. Since 2008, the Gorongosa Restoration Project, in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, has facilitated the recovery of megafauna populations that were severely depleted or extirpated during the country's civil war (1977–1992). For over a decade, we have monitored Gorongosa's large-herbivore populations to understand how animal behavior and trophic interactions change as communities reassemble. Here, we present spatiotemporally explicit data sets on the movements and diets of large herbivores in Gorongosa between 2013 and 2025, along with annual rainfall data. This period encompassed extremes of climate (including some of the driest and wettest years on record) and the reintroduction, starting in 2018, of locally extinct apex predators and scavengers: African wild dog (&lt;i&gt;Lycaon pictus&lt;/i&gt;), leopard (&lt;i&gt;Panthera pardus&lt;/i&gt;), spotted hyena (&lt;i&gt;Crocuta crocuta&lt;/i&gt;), and side-striped jackal (&lt;i&gt;Lupulella adusta&lt;/i&gt;). We used GPS telemetry to monitor 277 herbivores of seven species (listed below with number of individuals collared, median duration of tracking, and median number of locations per individual): Cape bushbuck (&lt;i&gt;Tragelaphus sylvaticus&lt;/i&gt;: 103 individuals; 280 days; 6646 fixes), nyala (&lt;i&gt;T. angasii&lt;/i&gt;: 37 individuals; 306 days; 6789 fixes), greater kudu (&lt;i&gt;T. strepsiceros&lt;/i&gt;: 80 individuals; 300 days; 17,365 fixes), common eland (&lt;i&gt;T. oryx&lt;/i&gt;: 10 individuals; 334 days; 15,783 fixes), waterbuck (&lt;i&gt;Kobus ellipsiprymnus&lt;/i&gt;: 22 individuals; 13 days; 2877 fixes), plains zebra (&lt;i&gt;Equus quagga&lt;/i&gt;: 7 individuals; 212 days; 1171 fixes), and African savanna elephant (&lt;i&gt;Loxodonta africana&lt;/i&gt;: 18 individuals; 706 days; 33,122 fixes). For 295 individuals that were immobilized during this work, we present morphological measurements (chest girth, body length, hind-foot length, weight), reproductive status and nutritional condition (ultrasound measurements, palpation scores), and fate (mortality date and cause, if known). For diet analysis, we used DNA metabarcoding to identify and quantify the relative abundances of plant taxa in 3785 fecal samples from 27 mammal species belonging to 11 families and 7 orders. In all, we recorded 516 food-plant taxa from at least 87 plant families and 39 orders. For Gorongosa's 15 most common large herbivores, ","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70386","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Auditory prey specialization sustains fat-deposition-free winter survival in morpho-acoustically adapted bats","authors":"Jiqian Li,&nbsp;Yannan Li,&nbsp;Yinli Hu,&nbsp;Wenhao Zhang,&nbsp;Maojun Zhong,&nbsp;Aiqing Lin,&nbsp;Jiang Feng","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70381","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70381","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Traditional mammalian overwintering strategies emphasize energy storage via fat accumulation coupled with hibernation or migration. However, niche exploitation may enable alternative strategies that circumvent reliance on lipid reserves. Here, we report a novel overwintering paradigm in the <i>Rhinolophus macrotis</i> group, a clade of auditory-specialized bats characterized by low-frequency echolocation and enlarged external ears (pinnae). Unlike sympatric species exhibiting autumnal fattening, these bats showed no significant pre-winter weight gain. Their equivalent or higher mass-specific oxygen consumption rates compared to sympatric congeners indicate no dependence on reduced basal metabolic rates for energy balance. Instead, the <i>R. macrotis</i> group sustained high winter foraging activity, particularly during warm-temperature intervals. Dietary analyses confirmed their predominant reliance on tympanate insects—an acoustically evasive prey guild relatively abundant even during seasonal resource lows—a niche scarcely exploited by sympatric bats. Aerodynamic modeling revealed that their low body mass reduces flight power demands, compensating for increased energetic costs of slow flight imposed by enlarged ears while enhancing maneuverability for hunting evasive prey. These findings provide robust empirical evidence for the viability of a “resource-specialization” pathway to winter survival, wherein morpho-acoustical and behavioral adaptations underpin access to exclusive prey resources, enabling an alternative overwintering strategy independent of autumnal fattening.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genome-wide associations of leaf spectral variation in MAGIC lines of Nicotiana attenuata","authors":"Cheng Li,&nbsp;Ewa A. Czyż,&nbsp;Bernhard Schmid,&nbsp;Rishav Ray,&nbsp;Rayko Halitschke,&nbsp;Ian T. Baldwin,&nbsp;Michael E. Schaepman,&nbsp;Meredith C. Schuman","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70366","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70366","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The application of in-field and aerial spectroscopy to assess functional and phylogenetic variation in plants has led to novel ecological insights and supports global assessments of plant biodiversity. Understanding how plant genetic variation influences reflectance spectra will help harness this potential for biodiversity monitoring and improve understanding of why plants differ in functional responses to environmental change. Here, we use a well-resolved genetic mapping population derived from Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-cross (MAGIC) lines of <i>Nicotiana attenuata</i> to associate genetic differences with differences in leaf spectra between plants in a field experiment in their natural environment. We analyzed the leaf reflectance spectra using a hand-held spectroradiometer (350–2500 nm) on 616 fully genotyped plants of <i>N. attenuata</i> grown in a randomized block design. We tested three approaches to conducting genome-wide association studies on spectral variants. We introduce a new hierarchical spectral clustering with parallel analysis (HSC-PA) method. This method efficiently captured the variation in our high-dimensional dataset and allowed us to discover a novel association, between a locus on chromosome 1 and the 734–1143 nm spectral range, spanning the red-edge and near-infrared regions that are sensitive to leaf structure and photosynthetic activity. This locus contains a candidate gene annotated as carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme involved in CO₂ hydration and regulation of photosynthetic efficiency, suggesting a physiological link between variation in leaf optical properties and carbon assimilation. In contrast, an approach treating single wavelengths as phenotypes identified genetic signals highly consistent with HSC-PA, but suffered from massive statistical redundancy without pinpointing significant, interpretable features. An index-based approach, which reduces complex spectra to a few dimensionless variables, detected two significant associations for <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mrow>\u0000 <mtext>ARDSI</mtext>\u0000 <mo>_</mo>\u0000 <msub>\u0000 <mi>C</mi>\u0000 <mi>w</mi>\u0000 </msub>\u0000 </mrow>\u0000 <annotation>$$ mathrm{ARDSI}_{C}_w $$</annotation>\u0000 </semantics></math> (a water-content-related index) with loci on chromosome 1 near genes annotated as a Zeta toxin domain-containing protein, and an Exocyst subunit Exo70 family protein. While these findings are biologically plausible, they represent a very narrow subset of the spectral variation captured by HSC-PA. The HSC-PA approach supports a comprehensive understanding of the genetic determinants of leaf spectral variation that is data-driven but human-interpretable and is thus a tool to discover genetic differences underlying intraspecific variation, a foundation of biodiversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70366","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatially-nested topologies stabilize meta-ecosystems via cross-scale source-sink dynamics","authors":"Tianna Peller,&nbsp;Isabelle Gounand,&nbsp;Marie-Josée Fortin,&nbsp;Frédéric Guichard","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70375","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70375","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecosystems are open to spatial flows of nonliving resources and dispersing organisms that can interact to drive their dynamics and functions. Empirical evidence shows resource flows and dispersal commonly have contrasting properties: resource flows connect nearby ecosystems of different types, while dispersal connects relatively distant ecosystems of similar types. For instance, islands and adjacent coral reefs are connected through resource exchanges but also exhibit organisms that disperse across larger spatial scales between homologous ecosystems. These contrasting properties of spatial flows can yield spatially nested topologies of diverse, coupled ecosystems, where nearby ecosystems coupled via resource flows are embedded within larger scale dispersal networks. Using meta-ecosystem models, we show that spatially nested topologies of coupled ecosystems have a general stabilizing effect on ecosystem dynamics. Stabilization results from the emergence of cross-scale source-sink dynamics, where some ecosystems act as nutrient sources but consumer sinks and others as nutrient sinks but consumer sources—creating a self-regulating spatial structure that dampens local instabilities. These dynamics lead to spatial variation in trophic regulation and biomass stocks across ecosystems of the same type: consumer sinks exhibit stronger top-down control and lower primary producer stocks, while consumer sources exhibit stronger bottom-up control and higher producer stocks. These local effects of cross-scale source-sink dynamics scale up to influence functions at the meta-ecosystem scale, including increasing primary production and nutrient retention. Critically, we further demonstrate how these source-sink dynamics depend on the dispersal rates of consumer species in both ecosystem types, such that the stability and function of one ecosystem type can be shaped by the dispersal rate of consumers in another. Our findings suggest that the diversity of ecosystem types and the hierarchy of spatial flow scales observed ubiquitously in nature are key properties of spatial ecological systems, driving their stability and functions across scales.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70375","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A cross-site comparison reveals limited geographic variation in risk avoidance of snowshoe hares","authors":"Shotaro Shiratsuru,&nbsp;Emily K. Studd,&nbsp;Michael J. L. Peers,&nbsp;Yasmine N. Majchrzak,&nbsp;Alice J. Kenney,&nbsp;Dennis L. Murray,&nbsp;Mark Romanski,&nbsp;Jerrold L. Belant,&nbsp;Hailey M. Boone,&nbsp;Stan Boutin,&nbsp;Jonathan N. Pauli","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70378","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70378","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Predation risk induces a myriad of behavioral antipredator responses of prey. However, different antipredator behaviors exhibit different degrees of flexibility within a single prey species. Moreover, how predator species composition and traits interact with the flexibility of particular antipredator behaviors to determine spatiotemporal activity patterns of prey remains unknown. We examined geographic variation in multiple behavioral axes of a single prey species, snowshoe hares <i>Lepus americanus</i>, across three different ecosystems in northern North America that differed in the predator guild (Wisconsin, USA, with multiple generalist predators; Isle Royale, Michigan, USA, with a single generalist predator; and Yukon, Canada, with a specialist ambush predator and a generalist predator). We hypothesized that predator species composition and traits would drive divergent behavioral patterns of hares across ecosystems. Using a biologging-based dataset of hare behaviors and a camera-based dataset of predator occurrence collected over multiple winters, we examined diel activity patterns, space use, and movement of hares while accounting for variable environmental conditions. Hares were only slightly less nocturnal (&lt;10%) when faced with a single nocturnal generalist predator (Isle Royale), and they exhibited highly comparable diel activity patterns across all sites. Patterns of spatial risk avoidance of hares were moderately different between the multi-predator systems; hares potentially avoided more lethal predators in Wisconsin and exhibited the opposite patterns of habitat use between daytime and nighttime in Yukon, possibly to avoid the most active predator at each time of day. Additionally, hare movements were shorter and more tortuous where ambush specialist predators were present (Yukon). Our study demonstrates that spatiotemporal risk avoidance of prey can exhibit limited geographic variation, but certain behavioral responses, such as diel activity, may be more conserved across ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70378","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147641780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ATLANTIC SPATIAL: A dataset of landscape, topographic, hydrological, and anthropogenic metrics for the Atlantic Forest","authors":"Maurício Humberto Vancine,&nbsp;Bernardo Brandão Niebuhr,&nbsp;Renata L. Muylaert,&nbsp;Júlia de Oshima,&nbsp;Vinicius Tonetti,&nbsp;Rodrigo Bernardo,&nbsp;Rafael Souza Cruz Alves,&nbsp;Eduardo Miguel Zanette,&nbsp;Victor Casagrande Souza,&nbsp;João Gabriel Ribeiro Giovanelli,&nbsp;John Wesley Ribeiro,&nbsp;Carlos De Angelo,&nbsp;Carlos Henrique Grohmann,&nbsp;Mauro Galetti,&nbsp;Milton Cezar Ribeiro","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70360","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70360","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Space is one of the main drivers of biodiversity, as it regulates the underlying processes affecting the distribution and dynamics of species and communities. It is a fundamental factor when considering the rapid climate and land cover changes occurring at local and global scales, which are linked to habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as their impacts on biodiversity. The Atlantic Forest of South America is among the world's biodiversity hotspots because of its exceptionally high species richness and endemism. Most of the threats to the Atlantic Forest's biodiversity stem from the expansion of urbanization and industry, extensive agricultural and livestock production, and mining. Here, we provide integrated and fine-scale spatial information (30-m resolution) for the entire extent of the Atlantic Forest for the years 2020 to 2022. The spatial data include different vegetation classes (forest, and forest combined with other non-forest vegetation), the effects of linear structures (roads and railways), and landscape metrics computed at multiple scales (radius buffers—moving window sizes—ranging from 50 to 2500 m, and up to 10 km for some metrics). The dataset comprises the Atlantic Forest delimitation vector and more than 500 rasters, available through a series of thematically grouped files in multiple Zenodo repositories. This data can also be accessed using the R package &lt;i&gt;atlanticr&lt;/i&gt;, which we developed to facilitate data retrieval and organization from Zenodo. The dataset includes landscape, topographic, hydrological, and anthropogenic metrics. Landscape metrics were calculated for two vegetation classes—Forest Vegetation (which combined different forest cover classes) and Natural Vegetation (which combined forest and non-forest cover classes)—as well as for a heterogeneous, multi-class classification of the landscape (31 land cover classes). The landscape metrics include landscape morphology (classification as matrix, core, edge, corridor, branch, stepping stone, and perforation), fragment area and proportion, patch area and number, edge and core areas and proportions, structural and functional connectivity (for different organisms' gap-crossing capabilities), distance to and from fragment edges, fragment perimeter and perimeter–area ratio, and landscape diversity (heterogeneity). Topographic metrics include elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, and landform elements (peak, ridge, shoulder, spur, slope, hollow, footslope, valley, pit, and flat). Hydrological metrics comprise potential springs (and their kernel density) and streams (and distance to the nearest feature). Anthropogenic metrics include maps of roads, railways, protected areas, Indigenous territories, and quilombola territories (localities of self-defined Afro-Brazilian traditional communities), as well as the distance to each feature. This dataset facilitates the efficient integration of biodiversity and spatially explicit data for the Atlantic Forest, serving as a data ","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70360","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147641785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seasonal stoichiometry of terrestrial consumer–resource interactions","authors":"Richard E. Feldman,&nbsp;Anna Singh,&nbsp;Paul C. Frost","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70383","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70383","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Variation in producer stoichiometry influences animal distribution, abundance, and behavior. While spatial variation in producer stoichiometry is widely acknowledged, seasonal variation in producer nutrient content may also strongly affect primary consumers. For many terrestrial ecosystems, nitrogen concentration in leaves declines over the growing season and is associated with increasing carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratios. As a result, late summer folivores like lepidoptera encounter a very different stoichiometric landscape than that of early summer. Although arthropods are assumed to regulate their elemental composition (to some degree), it is possible that the stoichiometry of these communities also varies seasonally in concert with their resources. To quantify the effects of seasonal changes in foliar stoichiometry on insects, we measured carbon and nitrogen concentrations and C:N ratios in leaves and adult moths in an alvar ecosystem of Ontario, Canada, nearly every week from early May to early October 2023. We found that leaf N concentrations decreased, C concentrations remained stable, and C:N ratios increased in leaves across the growing season. The result was consistent across different light levels though somewhat variable across sampling locations. On the contrary, moth N and C concentrations and C:N ratios varied minimally across the growing season. Furthermore, we found little evidence for consistent seasonal declines in per-individual moth body mass or total moth abundance, and no strong direct association between these moth characteristics and foliar C:N. As a result, there may be a limited physiological cost to acute N limitation in an N scarce landscape. Just how late summer foliage eating arthropods have adapted to high C:N ratios remains a key question, especially since climate change may cause earlier leaf emergence and lengthen periods of consumer–resource stoichiometric mismatch.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70383","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Foliar pathogen epidemic slows decomposition of invasive plant litter","authors":"Brett R. Lane,&nbsp;Chris Wojan,&nbsp;Carlie Meehan,&nbsp;Amy E. Kendig,&nbsp;Robert D. Holt,&nbsp;Philip F. Harmon,&nbsp;Keith Clay,&nbsp;S. Luke Flory,&nbsp;Erica M. Goss","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70374","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70374","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Decomposition of plant litter, facilitated primarily by microbial decomposers, plays a critical role in biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem function. The rate of litter decomposition can determine its environmental impact, where accelerated decomposition alters the timing and rate of nutrient release and may promote nutrient leaching, whereas slowed decomposition can result in litter accumulation, which impacts seedling recruitment, fire regimes, perennation of microbial communities, and slows nutrient release. Mutualistic endophytes are known to slow litter decomposition, but less is known about the impact that plant pathogens, present in diseased litter, have on decomposition rates. We compared litter decomposition of the invasive annual grass <i>Microstegium vimineum</i> with Bipolaris leaf spot symptoms, a fungal disease, to litter without symptoms of the disease in a year-long common garden experiment. We found leaf tissue with disease symptoms decomposed later in the year compared to litter without symptoms. By summer, 54% of leaf tissue from healthy sites remained compared to 80% of leaf material from diseased litter. Fungal infection did not impact the lignin or C:N content of the litter. There were significant differences in fungal community composition between infected and healthy litter at the start of the experiment that persisted until the end of summer. Disease epidemics prior to senescence contributed to the persistence of infected tissue, which could slow the return of nutrients to the environmental pool and promote the survival and dispersal of pathogen inoculum the following season.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70374","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Host specificity of fungal pathogens covaries with climate: Implications for intraspecific plant interactions","authors":"Abigail S. Neat,&nbsp;Felipe Albornoz,&nbsp;Kyle A. Gervers,&nbsp;Posy E. Busby,&nbsp;F. Andrew Jones","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70357","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70357","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Plants of the same species harbor shared enemies that can limit population growth and promote plant species coexistence, a phenomenon known as conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). Host-specific microbial pathogens are known drivers of CNDD, yet how these plant–microbe interactions vary with environmental context is less explored. Further, microbial pathogens and mutualists may jointly contribute to the relative strength of CNDD, yet most studies focus only on pathogens. We used ITS metabarcoding to characterize soil and foliar fungal functional groups for individual trees of three dominant conifers in forests where the strength of CNDD has been shown to be greater at lower elevations relative to higher elevations. We hypothesized that trees within mesic low elevation forests accumulate more host-specific fungal pathogens compared to trees found in the more xeric high elevation forests. Conversely, we hypothesized that trees found in the high elevation forests accumulate more host-specific mutualists compared to those found at low elevations. We tested these hypotheses with the fungal community sequencing data by evaluating three independent metrics of plant-associated fungal functional groups—alpha diversity, community weighted mean (CWM), and host specificity—that together address the degree to which each functional group is associated with each focal tree. We found soil pathogen alpha diversity, CWM, and host specificity to all decline in climates associated with increasing elevation. We also found foliar fungal pathogen host specificity, but not diversity or CWM, to decline in climates associated with increasing elevation. In contrast, we found no significant relationships between any of our three metrics for ectomycorrhizal fungi and climate. Our results suggest that across a gradient known to negatively covary with CNDD strength, pathogen accumulation is most prevalent in the mesic, lower elevation climates. These results are consistent with pathogenic fungi contributing to observed landscape level variation in CNDD.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147630269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}