Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Dispersal kernels regulate environmental, biotic, and stochastic effects on the maintenance of metacommunity diversity","authors":"Nathan I. Wisnoski,&nbsp;Megan C. Szojka,&nbsp;Rachel M. Germain,&nbsp;Tadashi Fukami,&nbsp;Lauren G. Shoemaker","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70484","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dispersal regulates patterns of diversity in metacommunities, but a primary focus on dispersal rates may mischaracterize effects that actually arise from dispersal kernels. Kernels describe probabilistic movements between donor and recipient patches, with steep kernels displaying a rapid decline in dispersal probability with distance, and shallow kernels decaying gradually over longer distances. We used simulations to measure how kernels affect diversity across metacommunity scales and ecological contexts, and developed a novel approach quantifying the effects of environmental filtering, competition, stochasticity, and dispersal on fitness. Metacommunities with shallow kernels followed expectations: emigration increased α-diversity but decreased β-diversity and γ-diversity. Metacommunities with steeper kernels did not follow expectations: steep kernels maintained regional diversity by reducing interspecific competition and stochastic extinctions, while weakening the fitness benefits of low dispersal and costs of high dispersal. Our work suggests dispersal kernels and rates jointly regulate exposure to environmental variation and the balance of assembly mechanisms in metacommunities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148878483","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":"Modularity limits the spatial propagation of disturbance in experimental seagrass networks","authors":"Caterina Mintrone,&nbsp;Giulia Proserpio,&nbsp;Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70476","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how habitat structure affects disturbance dynamics among connected patches is a central issue in ecology. Network theory predicts that a modular arrangement of habitat patches can limit the spread of local perturbations, reducing the probability of large-scale impacts. We performed a field experiment to test whether modular networks were more resistant to the spread of algal turfs compared to random networks within meadows of the seagrass <i>Posidonia oceanica</i> (L.) Delile. Networks were created by manipulating the canopy of <i>P</i>. <i>oceanica</i> to promote the vegetative propagation of algal turfs among network nodes from initially disturbed patches. Algal turfs spread more widely among nodes in random networks, whereas they remained confined within the nodes of the perturbed module in modular networks. Our findings support the hypothesis that modularity is a key trait of ecological networks for mitigating the spread of perturbations and emphasize the importance of considering habitat structure for conservation efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70476","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148878485","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":"Against the grain: Discovery of wood-nesting reveals hidden substrate flexibility in a major bee lineage","authors":"Zestin W. W. Soh,&nbsp;John S. Ascher","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70472","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70472","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Nest-site selection is a fundamental component of bee natural history, influencing reproductive success, exposure to predators and environmental stress, and ultimately constraining where populations can persist (Harmon-Threatt, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Documenting nesting behavior is therefore essential not only for understanding species biology but also for elucidating how they function within ecosystems and respond to environmental change (Antoine &amp; Forrest, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Collins et al., &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;; Kueneman et al., &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;; Orr et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Visser et al., &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;). Yet nesting ecology remains poorly documented for many taxa, particularly in tropical regions where bee faunas are increasingly threatened by rapid habitat transformation (Orr et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Warrit et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Halictidae, the second-most speciose bee family globally, is overwhelmingly dominated by ground-nesting species (Michener, &lt;span&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt;). Wood-nesting is reported only in a small subset of taxa: lineages of Augochlorini (e.g., &lt;i&gt;Megalopta&lt;/i&gt;, some &lt;i&gt;Augochlora&lt;/i&gt;, and &lt;i&gt;Neocorynura&lt;/i&gt;) (Eickwort &amp; Sakagami, &lt;span&gt;1979&lt;/span&gt;), restricted to the Americas, and a minority of &lt;i&gt;Lasioglossum&lt;/i&gt; species (Gibbs, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;; Miyanaga et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Stockhammer, &lt;span&gt;1967&lt;/span&gt;; Walker, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;), all within the subfamily Halictinae. By contrast, the approximately 620 species of Nomiinae, distributed mainly across Africa, Asia, and Australia, have long been regarded as strictly ground-nesting (Michener, &lt;span&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt;; Wcislo &amp; Engel, &lt;span&gt;1996&lt;/span&gt;). Nesting studies for Nomiinae are sparse, largely limited to a review of 21 species by Wcislo and Engel (&lt;span&gt;1996&lt;/span&gt;) and a few isolated accounts (e.g., Cane, &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;; Hannan et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;), and remain scarce for palaeotropical lineages despite their importance as pollinators (Corlett, &lt;span&gt;2004&lt;/span&gt;; Wcislo &amp; Engel, &lt;span&gt;1996&lt;/span&gt;). To our knowledge, nesting in decayed wood has not been reported for any nomiine species.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here, we report the first evidence of wood-nesting in Nomiinae, based on observations of &lt;i&gt;Nomia&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Acunomia&lt;/i&gt;) &lt;i&gt;lusoria&lt;/i&gt; Cockerell, 1919, and &lt;i&gt;Nomia&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Hoplonomia&lt;/i&gt;) &lt;i&gt;incerta&lt;/i&gt; Gribodo, 1894, in two contrasting habitats in Singapore: an intertidal mangrove and an urban park. These observations extend the known behavioral repertoire of the subfamily and suggest that tropical halictids exhibit greater nesting plasticity than previously recognized. They also raise broader ecological questions about how environmental constraints and deadwood availability influence bee nesting strategies in tropical landscapes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first observation was made on 23 July 2021 at 1100 h in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (1.449176° N, 103.726838° E), Singapore's largest remnant mangrove. Multiple pollen-laden female &lt;i&gt;N. lusoria&lt;/i&gt;, a m","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70472","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148878488","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":"NeoUngulatesDiet: A database of ungulate diets in the Neotropics","authors":"Laís Lautenschlager,&nbsp;Maria Eduarda Vieira Veloso,&nbsp;Yuri Souza,&nbsp;Letícia Gonçalves Ribeiro,&nbsp;Mateus Melo-Dias,&nbsp;Sofany Montoya,&nbsp;Rubia Ferreira dos Santos Morini,&nbsp;Bruno Araujo Pinto,&nbsp;Mauro Galetti,&nbsp;Kenneth J. Feeley","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70389","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70389","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ungulates play a crucial ecological role in tropical forests by influencing various ecosystem processes, including herbivory, seed dispersal and predation, and seedling recruitment. These large mammalian herbivores, including tapirs, camelids, cervids, and peccaries, have a significant impact on plant community structure, composition, and dynamics, especially in the Neotropics. Despite their ecological importance, a systematic understanding of ungulate dietary information has been lacking. The <i>NeoUngulatesDiet</i> database addresses this gap by compiling data from a wide range of sources, including peer-reviewed literature and gray literature such as master's dissertations, Ph.D. theses, and book chapters. <i>NeoUngulatesDiet</i> represents a comprehensive compilation of 200 studies conducted between 1976 and 2025. It includes data from 17 countries, 224 plant families, 1135 plant genera, and 2624 plant species consumed by 21 of 28 ungulate species across the Neotropical region. The database comprises a comprehensive repository of consumed plants, including their growth forms, the parts eaten, and associated animal feeding habits. It also provides key information for dietary studies, such as the methodology used, study locations, and the years in which data were collected. This compilation enables researchers to explore the dietary preferences and ecological roles of various ungulate species, which differ in digestive systems, body sizes, and feeding habits. The dataset highlights the need for conservation strategies, particularly for seven understudied Neotropical species for which no dietary information is currently available. Therefore, <i>NeoUngulatesDiet</i> serves as a valuable resource for conservation practitioners, supporting the design and implementation of targeted strategies to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem function in the Neotropical region. The data are released under a CC BY 4.0 license. This paper should be cited when the data are used in publications.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70389","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148754361","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":"Unexpected allies: Land hermit crabs and cockroaches contribute to seed dispersal in a non-photosynthetic plant","authors":"Kenji Suetsugu","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70462","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70462","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148708907","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":"Environmental stress strengthens plant–mycorrhizal associations: A novel extension of the stress gradient hypothesis","authors":"Cole J. Doolittle,&nbsp;Thomas W. Crowther,&nbsp;Camille S. Delavaux,&nbsp;Joseph A. LaManna","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70465","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how environmental stress alters the strength of local interactions is key to explaining diversity in current and future plant communities. Along gradients of increasing environmental stress, traditional theory posits that plants experience stronger facilitative interactions and weaker antagonistic interactions. However, it remains unclear whether this pattern extends to the relative host-specificity of plant–microbe interactions along stress gradients. Understanding these dynamics is particularly important for plant interactions with pathogenic and mycorrhizal fungi, which can drive opposing density-dependent processes that shape plant community compositions. We posit that increases in abiotic environmental stress are associated with stronger associations between plants and mutualists as plants increasingly rely on facilitative resource partnerships to cope with abiotic environmental stressors. We tested this prediction along an abiotic stress gradient in the central Cascade Range of Oregon, USA, using overlapping datasets of large high-resolution forest inventory plots, soil chemistry, and amplicon sequencing. Consistent with our predictions, in low-elevation forest stands with benign abiotic conditions and abundant nutrients, tree composition was more correlated with pathogenic fungal composition than ectomycorrhizal fungal composition. However, in forests at high elevations with limited nutrients and harsher climates, tree community composition was more correlated with ectomycorrhizal fungal composition than pathogenic fungal composition. Additionally, we find that spatial aggregation of ectomycorrhizal fungi increases as abiotic stress increases with elevation and opposing patterns of pathogen and ectomycorrhizal relative abundance in different substrate layers. Together, our findings suggest that facilitative interactions in stressful environments extend to mutualist-plant interactions and such interactions play a key role in shaping forest composition along environmental stress gradients.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148652480","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":"Tenerife lizards as seed predators","authors":"Beatriz Rumeu, Tamara Burgos, Ana Otero‐Ruiz, Juan P. González‐Varo","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70464","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70464","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148582282","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":"Indirect niche construction: A coffee pest facilitates its own ant natural enemies","authors":"Jonathan R. Morris","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70463","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148564725","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":"A novel hunting-by-riding association of reef fishes mediated by habitat complexity","authors":"Guilherme M. Castro,&nbsp;Ivan M. Carneiro,&nbsp;Fernando C. Cardoso,&nbsp;Rodrigo L. Moura","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70461","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70461","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148564724","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":"Impacts of large herbivores on savanna plant communities: Predictive models of herbivore selectivity and plant response","authors":"Joel O. Abraham,&nbsp;Maria Stahl,&nbsp;Samson Kurukura,&nbsp;Abdikadir Ali Hassan,&nbsp;Jacob R. Goheen,&nbsp;Todd M. Palmer,&nbsp;Tyler R. Kartzinel,&nbsp;Robert M. Pringle","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70445","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70445","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Large herbivores are among the most ecologically influential and extinction-prone animals. Megaherbivores, in particular, radically alter vegetation. Yet, few studies have tried to predict the impacts of herbivores—or their extinction—on plant species composition and community structure. First principles suggest that preferred food plants should be most strongly suppressed by herbivores and released by herbivore loss, but this intuition may be misleading if plant responses are strongly contingent on functional traits and/or plant–plant interactions. We sought to predict the responses of plant species to size-selective herbivore-exclusion treatments in an African savanna, using data on herbivore diets and plant functional traits. Our analysis had three stages. First, we identified plant traits that predicted selectivity (use relative to availability) by the dominant herbivore species excluded by each experimental treatment: megaherbivores (elephant, giraffe; ≥1000 kg), mesoherbivores (buffalo, zebra, impala; 40–600 kg), and dik-dik (5 kg). Several plant traits predicted selectivity across multiple herbivore species, but each species' diet was best predicted by a distinctive suite of traits. Second, we tested whether herbivore selectivity alone predicted plant responses. Elephant selectivity uniquely predicted plant responses in exclosures relative to unfenced control plots (<i>R</i>² = 0.24–0.30); plant taxa strongly favored by elephants were ninefold more abundant inside exclosures. However, herbivore selectivity failed to predict differences in community structure between the different fenced exclusion treatments, suggesting that bottom-up effects of competition may intensify relative to consumptive effects as smaller herbivores are removed. Third, we show that including plant traits as covariates alongside elephant selectivity modestly improved predictability (<i>R</i>² = 0.27–0.50). Despite various sources of uncertainty and imprecision inherent in our approach, we show that elephant foraging decisions are a major determinant of plant community dynamics. Our findings indicate that models based on readily attainable data can substantially predict plant community responses to the loss or reintroduction of megafauna. Future work can refine our approach by incorporating additional plant traits associated with tolerance and competition, along with mechanistic measurements of herbivore preferences and biomass consumption, to predict even more accurately how large-herbivore population declines and extinctions will impact plant communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70445","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148552522","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}