Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Navigating the risks and rewards of scavenging in multipredator, human-impacted landscapes","authors":"Calum X. Cunningham,&nbsp;Rebecca Windell,&nbsp;Lauren C. Satterfield,&nbsp;Aaron J. Wirsing,&nbsp;Thomas M. Newsome,&nbsp;Taylor R. Ganz,&nbsp;Laura R. Prugh","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70090","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Large carnivores can influence smaller scavengers through both positive and negative interactions (e.g., carrion provisioning and intraguild killing) and ultimately shape scavenging efficiency. However, we know little about this trade-off in anthropogenic landscapes where humans kill carnivores and provide carrion subsidies. In the context of wolf (<i>Canis lupus</i>) recolonization of human-impacted landscapes in Washington, USA, we investigated how sources of ungulate mortality (wolves, cougars [<i>Puma concolor</i>], and vehicles) shape scavenging efficiency, community-wide carcass visitations, and the strategies used by scavengers to navigate risk–reward trade-offs. Cougar and wolf kills mostly occurred in areas with low-to-moderate human influence, whereas roadkill typically occurred in areas with high human impact. Wolves consumed their kills most rapidly (median &lt;4.7 days), providing fewer scavenging opportunities than cougar- and vehicle-killed ungulates, which persisted longer (median = 8.9 and 12 days, respectively). Roadkill primarily attracted avian scavengers, whereas mammalian scavengers used roadkill to a lesser degree and did so by shifting to more nocturnal foraging. The absence in winter of turkey vultures (<i>Cathartes aura</i>) and black bears (<i>Ursus americanus</i>), which are obligate and apex scavengers, respectively, coincided with a seasonal increase in scavenging by most other species. The two mammalian mesocarnivores exhibited divergent strategies: Coyotes (<i>Canis latrans</i>) frequently scavenged but usually for short durations and with heightened vigilance at predator kills, whereas bobcats (<i>Lynx rufus</i>) visited carcasses less frequently but fed for longer durations and displayed low vigilance while scavenging. These results suggest a hierarchical decision-making process whereby scavengers first choose whether to forage at a carcass before fine-tuning foraging duration, using temporal refugia, or increasing vigilance. Predator recovery in human-dominated landscapes therefore adds complexity to the spatiotemporal landscape of risks and rewards, and outcomes for scavengers will likely depend on their propensity to scavenge and vulnerability to humans and large predators.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70090","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143919385","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":"Flower power: Modeling floral resources of wild cherry (Prunus avium L.) for bee pollinators based on 3D data","authors":"Zoe Schindler,&nbsp;Elena Larysch,&nbsp;Felix Fornoff,&nbsp;Katja Kröner,&nbsp;Nora Obladen,&nbsp;Alexandra-Maria Klein,&nbsp;Thomas Seifert,&nbsp;Christian Vonderach,&nbsp;Christopher Morhart","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70103","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pollinator declines pose a threat to ecosystems and food production. Agriculture contributes to, but also suffers from, the erosion of pollination services. Our study explores the potential of trees in agricultural landscapes to support pollinators by providing floral resources. Our overarching objective is the quantification of floral resources produced by wild cherry (<i>Prunus avium</i> L.) that can be used by flower-visiting and pollinating insects such as bees. Using an innovative approach, we combine pollen measurements with manual counts of flowers on branches and 3D data derived from terrestrial laser scanning. This approach allows us to scale up flower numbers from branches to entire trees. The derived models for estimating the probability of flower occurrence (<i>R</i>²_c = 0.52, <i>R</i>²_m = 0.50) and the number of flowers per branch (<i>R</i>²_c = 0.88, <i>R</i>²_m = 0.84), as well as the number of flowers per tree (<i>R</i>² = 0.83), show good model fits with only a small set of predictors. The model fits indicate that, at the branch level, predicting flowering probability is more challenging than predicting flower abundance. We found differences in the number of flowers per branch in different crown sections, suggesting that floral resources are heterogeneously distributed. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the number of flowers per tree increases exponentially with tree dimension (stem diameter, crown volume). Therefore, large trees provide disproportionately more floral resources than small trees and are particularly worthy of conservation efforts. For example, our models estimate that a single tree with a stem diameter of 25 cm carries 195,535 flowers (95% CI: 159,991–237,318), thus providing about 57 cm³ (95% CI: 32–88 cm³) of pollen and producing 170 g (95% CI: 48–345 g) nectar sugar per 24 h. This amount of pollen is sufficient to rear, for example, 5202 larvae (95% CI: 2886–8022) of <i>Lasioglossum laticeps</i>, a common and generalist sweat bee of cherry trees. In contrast, a smaller tree with a stem diameter of 10 cm provides only 8% of these resources. In conclusion, we demonstrate how our results contribute to the broader single-large-or-several-small debate in nature conservation by highlighting the value of large trees. Additionally, we show how information gathered at the branch level may be nondestructively upscaled to entire trees.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70103","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143926104","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":"Shared sinks alter competitive outcomes via edge effects","authors":"Brian A. Lerch,&nbsp;Senay Yitbarek,&nbsp;Samantha A. Catella","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70104","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Most work on source-sink dynamics in metacommunities assumes that species have minimal or no niche overlap and thus different sources and sinks. We explore the alternative possibility: competing species have an overlapping set of sources and sinks. Using both implicit-space two-patch (ordinary differential equations) and explicit-space reaction–diffusion (partial differential equations) models, we find that the presence of shared sinks (where neither species can persist indefinitely) allows for a species that would otherwise be driven extinct to exclude its superior competitor, assuming that the species that benefits the most in the source incurs a greater cost than its competitor in the sink. Competitive outcomes are altered when there is an abrupt transition between the source and the sink (i.e., due to an edge effect) because the species that is more tolerant of the sink has a lower net emigration rate at the edge. We discuss how shared sources and sinks relate to previously described trade-offs and potential applications for conservation and restoration.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143926105","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":"Global warming disrupts the relative allocation between sexual and clonal reproduction in a common salt marsh plant","authors":"Renping Jiang,&nbsp;Wenwen Liu,&nbsp;Steven C. Pennings","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70101","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Adjusting relative allocation between sexual and clonal reproduction is part of how plants respond to a variable environment, but we know little about how the allocation strategies of plant populations vary over time as abiotic conditions change. We studied correlations between sexual and clonal reproduction using 23 years of data on the clonal salt marsh plant <i>Spartina alterniflora</i> at eight sites in coastal Georgia, USA. The relationship between sexual reproduction and clonal reproduction varied over time. Within years, sexual reproduction was negatively related to clonal reproduction. These relationships were stronger in cooler years and weaker in warmer years, with slopes ranging from −0.202 in cool years to −0.013 in warm years. The trade-offs were also affected by river discharge, with stronger (more negative) slopes as river discharge increased. In a random forest model, temperature had the greatest influence (58%) on the relationships compared to other global change variables (precipitation, river discharge, sea level, and tide range). Overall, our study demonstrated that climate warming gradually disrupts the negative correlation in allocation between reproductive modes in a common salt marsh plant, shifting the affected populations toward a near-total reliance on clonal reproduction, potentially limiting their spread and the generation of new genotypes.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70101","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143919483","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":"Ten years (2013–2023) of fish assemblage data collected seasonally with diver surveys on artificial and natural reefs","authors":"Christopher D. Stallings,&nbsp;Meaghan E. Emory,&nbsp;Jonathan A. Peake,&nbsp;Michael J. Schram,&nbsp;Kara R. Wall,&nbsp;Ian Williams","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70108","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The study of assembly patterns and dynamics of organisms has long remained a foundational theme in ecology. Further, the relationship between assemblages and different habitats can provide important insight into ecological processes and guide management and conservation efforts (e.g., restoration, protected areas). We conducted underwater visual surveys of reef-fish assemblages at 14 sites in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including 8 that were paired artificial and natural reefs. By using a paired design, we controlled biotic (e.g., larval supply), abiotic (e.g., depth), and socio variables (e.g., fishing access) to isolate the effect(s) of reef type. Trained scientific SCUBA divers with extensive experience with reef fishes from the broader tropical western Atlantic region conducted 10-min stationary surveys on the paired reefs each season (i.e., calendar quarters) for 10 years from spring 2013 to spring 2023. We also surveyed six additional artificial reefs from winter 2020 to spring 2023 that lacked natural reef pairs. During each survey, the divers identified and estimated the total lengths of all taxa observed within an imaginary cylinder around them. The imaginary cylinders had a radius of up to 7.5 m (depending on horizontal visibility) and extended from the seafloor to the highest visible water above the diver. During the study period, we conducted a total of 1349 surveys and counted 544,736 fish that represented 171 taxa (most at the species level). Analyses of these data have revealed habitat-specific heterogeneity of the fish assemblages at both taxonomic and functional trait levels, the importance of herbivory in structuring the benthos, and socio-ecological interactions in the system, among other findings. These data may be useful for other researchers interested in patterns and dynamics of populations and communities, functional traits, food web structure, and taxa–habitat relationships and for parameterizing statistical, joint distribution, metacommunity, and ecosystem models. In addition, because many of the observed taxa are of management concern, they may be useful for researchers interested in fisheries science. The data are free to use and are not copyright restricted. We ask users to cite this data paper.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70108","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143926103","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":"Biodiversity loss disrupts seasonal carbon dynamics in a species-rich temperate grassland","authors":"Jules Segrestin,&nbsp;Aleš Lisner,&nbsp;Lars Götzenberger,&nbsp;Tomáš Hájek,&nbsp;Eva Janíková,&nbsp;Veronika Jílková,&nbsp;Marie Konečná,&nbsp;Tereza Švancárová,&nbsp;Jan Lepš","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70091","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biodiversity loss poses a significant threat to ecosystem functioning. However, much of the empirical evidence for these effects is based on artificial experiments that often fail to simulate the structure of natural communities. Hence, it is still unclear whether natural diversity losses would significantly affect the functioning of “real-world” ecosystems. As subordinate and rare species constitute most of the diversity in natural communities and are often more vulnerable to local extinction, we evaluated their contribution to ecosystem functioning in a naturally species-rich grassland. We focused on two mechanisms by which they can support ecosystem functions: redundancy and complementarity. We conducted two long-term field experiments (&gt;6 years) simulating contrasting biodiversity loss scenarios through the manual removal of plant species and measured the consequences of species loss on various ecosystem functions related to carbon dynamics. The latter were examined seasonally to explore diversity effects outside the typical peak of vegetation. We found that dominant removal led to substantial reductions in aboveground phytomass and litter production and altered the annual carbon fixation capacity of the vegetation, highlighting the pivotal role of dominant species in driving ecosystem functioning. Despite high species diversity, other species could not fully compensate for the loss of a single dominant even after more than 25 years, challenging assumptions about redundancy. Complementarity effects were not detected at the peak of vegetation but were evident in early spring and autumn when subordinate and rare species enhanced ecosystem functions. Surprisingly, belowground phytomass, soil organic carbon content, and litter decomposition were unaffected by species removal, suggesting complex interactions in belowground processes. These findings underscore the importance of dominant species in maintaining ecosystem functioning and emphasize the need for nuanced approaches to studying biodiversity loss in real-world communities. Comprehensive seasonal measurements are essential for accurately discerning the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem dynamics and informing effective conservation strategies that maintain ecosystem functioning.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70091","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143919386","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":"Breaking barriers: Transoceanic movement by a bull shark","authors":"Ryan Daly,&nbsp;Taryn S. Murray,&nbsp;Michael J. Roberts,&nbsp;David S. Schoeman,&nbsp;Nicolas Lubitz,&nbsp;Adam Barnett,&nbsp;Riaan Cedras,&nbsp;Dunsin A. Bolaji,&nbsp;Grant M. Brokensha,&nbsp;Pamela M. Le Noury,&nbsp;Fabien Forget,&nbsp;Stephanie K. Venables","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70096","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143925793","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":"Surfing the tidal wave: Use of transiently aquatic habitat by juvenile Pacific salmon and other fishes in estuaries","authors":"Daniel J. Scurfield,&nbsp;Phoebe L. Gross,&nbsp;Julian C. L. Gan,&nbsp;Jonathan W. Moore","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70100","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;There is an accumulating set of natural history observations of diverse consumers “surfing” resource waves to extend quality foraging opportunities (Armstrong et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;). Resource waves are where natural gradients (e.g., elevation) create pulses of resources that propagate across space and time—thereby extending foraging opportunities for mobile organisms (Aikens et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;). Examples include the seasonal “green wave” for herbivores (Sawyer &amp; Kauffman, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;), or predators such as grizzly bears (&lt;i&gt;Ursus arctos&lt;/i&gt;) pursuing sockeye salmon (&lt;i&gt;Oncorhynchus nerka&lt;/i&gt;) as they migrate to their spawning grounds (Schindler et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While seasonal resource tracking has dominated the literature, tides provide similar opportunities for mobile consumers to exploit ephemeral resources; the framework for the resource wave phenomena (Armstrong et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;). Estuaries are large intertidal landscapes with strong spatiotemporal patterns that typically ebb and flood twice daily across a mosaic of habitats (Figure 1A). Theses habitats range from riparian, transitional marsh, emergent marsh, delta mudflat to eelgrass (&lt;i&gt;Zostera marina&lt;/i&gt;) providing various forage and shelter opportunities (Woo et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;). While there is general appreciation that estuaries are nursery grounds for juvenile fishes (Sharpe et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;) (Figure 1B), the extent to which these mobile organisms are navigating transiently aquatic habitats remains relatively unknown. Here we ask whether estuarine fishes are accessing new habitats by exploiting tides as a resource wave? Previous studies of juvenile salmon fry have found that they feed heavily on energy-rich terrestrial insects among estuary marshes potentially mobilized and accessed via tidal inundation (Gray et al., &lt;span&gt;2002&lt;/span&gt;; Woo et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;), while larger predacious fish, such as Dolly Varden (&lt;i&gt;Salvelinus malma&lt;/i&gt;), occupy deep and large habitats of the outer estuary (Seitz et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). It is assumed that estuarine fishes will actively seek out newly available forage and cover opportunities while evading the increasing risk of predation as lower estuary habitats gain depth and become increasingly exposed. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that the abundance of estuarine fish species tracks tidal inundation, moving into transiently aquatic habitat as they become accessible with the use of a series of underwater cameras (Figure 1C).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This study was conducted in the Salmon (Xwésam) River estuary on the traditional territory of the K'ómoks First Nation, Vancouver Island, British Columbia (Figure 1D). The Salmon River Estuary is a delta estuary approximately 3.5 km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; in area, supporting all five species of Pacific salmon and various resident fish species. This work is part of a large-scale collaborative initiative—Estuary Resilience project—led by The Nature Trust of ","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70100","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143919481","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":"Dark nectar pouches are visually similar to colored nectar in bird-pollinated flowers","authors":"Yang Niu,&nbsp;Lie-Wen Lin,&nbsp;Yi-Feng Liu,&nbsp;Li-Shen Qian,&nbsp;Zhe Chen,&nbsp;Hang Sun","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70099","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143919480","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":"Fish–sea lily interactions as observed from a submersible: Paleoecological implications","authors":"Przemysław Gorzelak,&nbsp;Mariusz A. Salamon,&nbsp;Charles G. Messing,&nbsp;Tomasz K. Baumiller","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70092","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143926106","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}