Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Moisture and competition constrain ephemeral resource quality for burying beetle reproduction","authors":"Tracie E. Hayes,&nbsp;Léo Lassérès,&nbsp;Louie H. Yang","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70127","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Shifts in abiotic factors such as temperature and moisture can change the availability of resources, especially under climate change. Both abiotic and biotic drivers can have profound, rapid effects on species distribution, survival, and reproduction. Little is known about how abiotic factors affect the availability of ephemeral resources. Burying beetles <i>Nicrophorus</i> spp.) are specialist users of ephemeral resources, as their reproduction requires locating, defending, and burying a small carcass. Environmental moisture, such as coastal fog, could change how quickly carcasses dry out. We tested the role of carcass moisture and interspecific competition with a generalist scavenger, <i>Heterosilpha</i> spp., on reproduction by placing pairs of <i>Nicrophorus guttula</i> in field chambers with control and experimentally dehydrated mouse carcasses. Pairs that were given control mouse carcasses were more likely to carry out reproductive behaviors and produce viable offspring than pairs that were given a partially dehydrated mouse. For those pairs that reproduced, competition limited the number of offspring. These results indicate that shifts in abiotic factors under climate change, along with biotic factors like competition, can reduce the availability and quality of ephemeral resource patches for consumers.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70127","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244414","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":"Bird migration on the edge: Experimental manipulation of corticosterone advances departure dates","authors":"Maëliss Hoarau,&nbsp;Frédéric Dulude-de Broin,&nbsp;Frédéric LeTourneux,&nbsp;Frédéric Angelier,&nbsp;Maude Gauthier-Bouchard,&nbsp;Marie-Claude Martin,&nbsp;Akiko Kato,&nbsp;Josée Lefebvre,&nbsp;Philippe J. Thomas,&nbsp;Christopher K. Williams,&nbsp;Joël Bêty,&nbsp;Pierre Legagneux","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70131","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Endogenous reserves accumulated during migration stopovers help most migratory birds cope with environmental uncertainties and fuel energy demands associated with migration and/or reproduction. Migratory decisions, such as departure time, should thus be finely tuned to energy intake rate at stopover sites. However, the physiological drivers of these decisions remain poorly understood. Glucocorticoids such as corticosterone (CORT) are known to mediate the stress response in birds but also play a key role in the regulation of energy intake and behavior, particularly during demanding life-history stages. We investigated how baseline CORT influences bird energy acquisition and migratory decisions by manipulating the physiology of wild snow geese (<i>Anser caerulescens atlanticus</i>) through subcutaneous implantation of corticosterone pellets during spring stopover. Birds of similar body condition were paired, implanted with CORT or placebo pellets, and tracked with GPS–GSM collars and accelerometers to monitor foraging efforts, habitat use, and migration departure date. We measured foraging rates from accelerometer data and classified using an unsupervised algorithm calibrated with field video recordings. CORT-treated birds foraged 20% more on average than placebo individuals over 10 days, primarily by increasing foraging efforts rather than altering habitat use. Most of the difference occurred in the first days post-implantation (Foraging rates on Day 2, CORT: 0.4 [95% CI: 0.34, 0.47]; placebo: 0.3 [0.2, 0.36]) and gradually faded to zero afterward (Foraging rates on Day 10, CORT: 0.26 [0.21, 0.32]; placebo: 0.26 [0.21, 0.31]). These higher foraging rates advanced the median departure date of CORT-treated individuals by 2 days compared to placebo (median departure: CORT, May 17 [15, 17]; placebo, May 19 [17, 20]). Our experimental manipulation is one of the first to induce a positive shift in migration phenology and confirms the role of CORT baseline levels in modulating energy acquisition and migratory decisions in a wild bird species.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70131","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244416","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":"Interspecific differences in nitrogen form acquisition strategies contribute to species dominance","authors":"Ming Guan,&nbsp;Xiao-Cui Pan,&nbsp;Jian-Kun Sun,&nbsp;Ji-Xin Chen,&nbsp;Xiao-Lin Wei,&nbsp;Bernhard Schmid,&nbsp;Michel Loreau,&nbsp;Yu-Long Feng","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70137","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Plant's ability to use prevalent or less prevalent soil nitrogen (N) forms may affect their dominance within vegetation types, and these partitioning-driven changes in dominance may facilitate species co-existence. However, the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear, particularly given the strong influence of altitude on soil N forms, which in turn affect plant N acquisition strategy. In this study, we first determined the effects of preference and plasticity in N form uptake on partitioning of soil N forms and species dominance, and then assessed the relative importance of these two N form use strategies for 19 dominant and non-dominant species in three vegetation types along an altitudinal gradient on Changbai Mountain, northeast China. To achieve this, we measured dominance, the contents of different N forms in rhizosphere soils, their proportional contributions to leaf N, and N form uptake preference and plasticity for these 19 species. Our results show significant interspecific differences in the proportional contributions of different soil N forms to leaf N within all three vegetation types, providing a novel mechanism underlying niche differentiation among plants. Species dominance was positively associated with the proportional contributions of soil dissolved organic N (the most prevalent N form) and the main inorganic N form to leaf N, while negatively with that of the subordinate inorganic N. These associations were not altered by the altitude-driven changes in the absolute and proportional contents of different soil N forms, suggesting a potentially widespread phenomenon. Both preference and plasticity in N form uptake contributed to the proportional contributions of different N forms to leaf N, and therefore to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types. Furthermore, N form preference was more critical for non-dominant relative to dominant species and at high relative to low altitude, while N form uptake plasticity was more important for dominant species and at low altitude. Our study provides robust evidence for the interspecific niche differentiation in N form uptake, contributing to species dominance and co-existence within vegetation types, and reveals the mechanisms (plasticity and preference) underlying the association between species dominance and the uptakes of different N forms.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244413","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":"Joining the locals: Plant invaders shift leaf defenses to match native neighbors","authors":"Jason Fridley,&nbsp;Robert J. Griffin-Nolan,&nbsp;Lamine Bensaddek,&nbsp;Guillaume Decocq,&nbsp;Kouki Hikosaka,&nbsp;Thomas Kichey,&nbsp;Julie LeVonne,&nbsp;Masako Mishio","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70129","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Local adaptation is common in invasive plants, but there is no consensus as to whether shifts in functional traits between invader “home” and “away” ranges contribute to their success in competition with native species. Theory based on enemy release suggests that invaders should reallocate limiting resources away from nutritive-based defenses and toward high growth potential. However, empirical studies of home–away trait shifts are typically conducted on a single invader and fail to consider how environmental differences across regions may impact leaf trait syndromes. We measured nine defense-related leaf traits for 27 invasive species across their home and away ranges in France, Japan, and the United States, and compared them to distributions of those same traits for co-occurring native species in both their home and away ranges. Our study included a total of 21 woody species sampled under forest canopies, and 23 herbaceous species sampled in fields and roadsides. Traits included toxic leaf alkaloids and cyanogenic glycosides; structural attributes including cell wall mass and fiber content; carbon (C), nitrogen (N), C:N, and total protein content; and specific leaf area. We found significant overall shifts in both qualitative (alkaloids) and quantitative (fiber, cell wall, N content) defense traits, particularly in woody species that are hypothesized to be more apparent to herbivores. However, the direction of trait shifts was not consistent across regions. Rather, for seven of nine traits, trait means of invaders shifted toward the means of native species in the recipient communities, likely reflecting environmental differences among regions rather than a shift in allocation from defense to growth. We suggest this “join the locals” pattern, whereby trait shifts in invaders match regional differences in native trait syndromes due to environmental variation, is a reasonable null model for studies of adaptive evolution in invasive species. Although the “join the locals” pattern is not mutually exclusive with shifts in functional traits caused by enemy release, our study involving multiple species and habitats suggests environmental gradients override trait shifts driven by varying herbivore communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70129","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237317","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":"Pyrosomes, Pyrosoma atlanticum: Highlighting plankton as an important food source for coral reefs in Timor-Leste","authors":"Catherine J. S. Kim,&nbsp;Russell Kelley","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70095","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Coral reefs in Timor-Leste are a hotspot of marine biodiversity within the Coral Triangle, a region encompassing six member states in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, housing the highest levels of marine biodiversity globally. Timor-Leste lies between Indonesia and Australia in the Indonesian Throughflow, a significant oceanographic feature connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Throughflow plays an essential role in regulating global climate, and we claim that it provides food to coral reefs in Timor-Leste and creates conditions favorable for corals in the context of ocean warming. The Ombai and Timor Straits, sitting to the north and south of Timor-Leste, are important outflows of the Throughflow with a respective 3-year mean transport of 4.9 and 7.5 Sv (1 Sv = 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; m&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; s&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt;) from 2004 to 2006 (Gordon et al., &lt;span&gt;2010&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Coral reef surveyors (The University of Queensland) identified a bloom of pyrosomes along the north coast of Timor-Leste in September–October of 2019 (Figure 1a, Video S1). The water was filled with spiky, white and red pyrosomes, &lt;i&gt;Pyrosoma atlanticum&lt;/i&gt; (Péron, 1804) (Tunicata, Thaliacea), an open water (pelagic) and planktonic, free-living colonial tunicate as far as the eye could see. Pyrosome blooms were identified at two different sites, Ataúro Island and Be'hau, about 2 weeks apart. At both sites, high current conditions swept the pyrosomes up onto shallow (&lt;10 m) coral reefs. At Be'hau, pyrosomes were spotted “stuck” onto two individual corals of two different species: &lt;i&gt;Hydnophora&lt;/i&gt; cf. &lt;i&gt;pilosa&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Duncanopsammia peltata&lt;/i&gt; (Arrigoni et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Kelley, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). There was considerable extension of mesenterial filaments of &lt;i&gt;H. pilosa&lt;/i&gt; (Figure 1b) which are used to digest food inside or outside of the coral mouth within a polyp. At both sites, pyrosomes were numerous, drifting from the deep blue depths to the surface (Figure 1a, Video S1).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The pyrosomes were likely swept up to shallower depths through intrusive upwelling of the Indonesian Throughflow current that raised the local oceanic thermocline above the depth of the shelf break without breaking the sea surface (Furnas, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;). Because intrusive upwelling does not reach the sea surface, it is undetectable via satellites, resulting in an underestimation of the importance to thermal energy flow and marine biology. Pyrosomes are typically found in global oceans from 50° N to 50° S, primarily in deeper ocean environments &gt;75 m depths (Figure 2; Appendix S1; Kim, &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;). They follow a typical planktonic daily migration pattern, ascending during the night to feed and migrating a vertical distance of nearly 1 km each day. During the day, pyrosomes are found at &gt;75 m depths (Andersen &amp; Sardou, &lt;span&gt;1994&lt;/span&gt;), and observations in Timor-Leste were during the day on shallow reefs, contrary to the established daily migration. The obse","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70095","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144213861","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":"Changes in species composition and community structure during plant–pollinator community assembly","authors":"Marilia Palumbo Gaiarsa,&nbsp;Bernat Bramon Mora,&nbsp;Claire Kremen,&nbsp;Lauren C. Ponisio","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70119","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The assembly of plant–pollinator communities has traditionally been explored from the perspective of species composition, often overlooking how interaction structure and the roles species play in their communities can change even when species composition remains constant. Here, we use 10 years of data to investigate the assembly of plant–pollinator networks in an intensively managed agricultural landscape. We compare the characteristics of assembling communities to those of mature and unrestored communities to explore if and how changes are reflected in species composition, network structure, and species' roles therein. Unexpectedly, we found that although species' composition of mature communities became increasingly dissimilar over time, the overall community structure and individual species' roles in assembling communities remained unchanged. Yet, the network structure of assembling communities gradually converged toward that of mature communities. Our results suggest that even when traditional diversity measures remain relatively invariant, network structure can uncover the dynamic nature of ecological communities, rendering interaction networks an important component of community assembly studies. Our findings advance the understanding of essential ecological processes underlying community assembly and provide insights into the mechanisms shaping species' roles within ecological networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70119","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144213862","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":"Body size as a mediator of climatic effects: Insights from a long-term study of social Iberian magpies","authors":"Jesús M. Avilés,&nbsp;Carlos de la Cruz,&nbsp;Erick González-Medina,&nbsp;Auxiliadora Villegas,&nbsp;Juliana Valencia,&nbsp;José A. Masero","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70130","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The importance of considering body size in assessing evolutionary responses to climatic change is increasingly recognized, as body size correlates with morphological, physiological, and ecological traits that are climate-sensitive and influence fitness. However, the role of body size in mediating climatic effects in vertebrates remains poorly understood. Here, we examined structural body-size responses to natal and adult-experienced climate in a social bird and assessed whether body size mediates the direction of climatic effects. Using 26 years of data on cooperatively breeding Iberian magpies <i>Cyanopica cooki</i>, we found that adult males reared in late spring nests were smaller than those hatched earlier in the breeding season. This pattern was driven by smaller females, which reproduced later and produced smaller sons. Larger males born in hottest years had lower lifetime fledgling production, while larger males experiencing hotter springs as adults produced more fledglings over their lifetime. Additionally, larger males born in driest years or raised in nests with many brood mates had shorter lifespans. Despite a significant increase in temperature in the study area over 26 years, the average tarsus length of males has not changed, likely due to opposing effects of natal and adult climate on body size. Our findings illustrate how inherited body size mediates climatic effects at different life stages, with these effects acting in contrasting directions on fecundity, resulting in apparent trait stasis despite ongoing climate warming.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70130","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144213863","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":"High thermal variation in maximum temperatures invert Brett's heat-invariant rule at fine spatial scales","authors":"Pol Pintanel,&nbsp;Miguel Tejedo,&nbsp;Urtzi Enriquez-Urzelai,&nbsp;Saúl F. Domínguez-Guerrero,&nbsp;Martha M. Muñoz","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70124","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Discovering how species' thermal limits evolve and vary spatially is crucial for predicting their vulnerability to ongoing environmental warming. Current evidence indicates that heat tolerance is less spatially variable than cold tolerance among species, presenting a major concern for organismal vulnerability in a rapidly warming world. This asymmetry in thermal limits has been supported by large-scale geographic studies, across latitudinal and elevational gradients (known as Brett's heat-invariant rule). Yet, how critical limits vary across finer spatial scales (e.g., across microenvironments) is less understood. Here, we show that minimum temperatures are more variable than maximum temperatures at large geographic scales (across latitude/elevation) but are less variable at local scales (within sites), in turn guiding spatial asymmetries in thermal tolerances. Using thermal tolerance measurements from amphibians, insects, and reptiles, we confirm the invariance of heat tolerance at large spatial scales and also find more variable heat than cold tolerances at local scales (an inverted Brett's heat-invariant rule at fine spatial scales). Our results suggest that regional- or global-level studies will likely obscure fine-scale structuring in thermal habitats and corresponding patterns of local heat tolerance adaptation. We emphasize that inferences based on broadscale geographic patterns obscure fine-scale variation in thermal physiology. For instance, a genetic basis for fine-scale variation in thermal physiology may reshuffle spatial and phylogenetic patterns of vulnerability.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70124","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144206344","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":"Evolutionary origins override contemporary environmental filtering in shaping terrestrial algae diversity","authors":"Shuyin Li,&nbsp;Qingyi Luo,&nbsp;Qinghua Cai,&nbsp;Ming-Chih Chiu,&nbsp;Vincent H. Resh","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70122","url":null,"abstract":"<p>An understanding of mechanisms that influence biogeographical patterns can play a pivotal role in deciphering the intricate dynamics underlying species distributions and, ultimately, biodiversity patterns. Biodiversity composition results from both evolutionary origins and contemporary processes. However, how this combination jointly shapes biodiversity patterns and operates through mechanistic links to real-world evidence generally has been overlooked. Using the information on microalgae that comprise the phyllosphere biota that grow on the surface of the leaves of terrestrial plants in China, we quantitatively evaluate the role of contemporary and phylogenetic processes in influencing species adaptability and their persistence across landscapes. Through biodiversity modeling, this study separates the effects of phylogenetic and contemporary factors affecting the community structure of these algal communities. Results demonstrate that the evolutionary history of these terrestrial algae can exert a dominant influence over contemporary filtering of environmental processes in shaping species diversity and community structure. These results underscore the significance of integrating evolutionary origins into biodiversity modeling to more accurately understand current biodiversity patterns and, therefore, facilitate more effective biodiversity management and ecosystem conservation efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197235","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":"Avoidance–attraction ratios incorrectly characterize behavioral interactions with camera trap data","authors":"Ellen Dymit,&nbsp;Rony Garcia-Anleu,&nbsp;Taal Levi","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70134","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Characterizing how sympatric species influence each other's behavior, activity patterns, and habitat selection is central to wildlife ecology and conservation. Animals display behaviors like resource exclusion, competitor evasion, or attraction to prey or safety, resulting in observable patterns of attraction or avoidance. Spatiotemporal avoidance–attraction ratios (AARs) based on the time intervals between species detections have become a popular tool for quantifying these interactions using camera trap data. Here, we utilize both simulations and empirical data from the Maya Biosphere Reserve of Guatemala to demonstrate that AARs generate inaccurate inferences in wildlife research driven by faulty estimates that consistently identify avoidance behavior even when the underlying interaction is neutral or attraction. Further, comparison of avoidance strength among species pairs is confounded by artifacts driven by the relative encounter rate of species in the pair rather than avoidance behavior. With a literature review, we find that a growing body of AAR-based research has reported significant avoidant interactions among species, often with clear policy implications, without statistical foundation. These inaccuracies could both misinform conservation strategies and hinder our understanding of species interactions. We advocate for the use of alternate approaches to characterizing spatiotemporal dynamics among species.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197486","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}