Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Phytotelmata-dwelling frog larvae might exhibit no defecation: A unique adaptation to a closed aquatic environment","authors":"Bun Ito, Yasukazu Okada","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4428","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4428","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Taiwanese tree frog <i>Kurixalus eiffingeri</i> lays its eggs in small water pools on plants, such as tree hollows or bamboo stumps (i.e., phytotelmata, Figure 1a,b). The larvae feed exclusively on the trophic eggs laid by their mothers and spend their entire larval period in tiny phytotelmata of less than 50 cm<sup>2</sup> of surface area and 2.5 cm of water depth (Chen et al., <span>2007</span>; Kam et al., <span>1997</span>, <span>2000</span>; Sato & Iwai, <span>2021</span>; Ueda, <span>1986</span>). Interestingly, during laboratory rearing, we observed that <i>K. eiffingeri</i> larvae do not seem to defecate until metamorphosis (Figure 1c), and that larvae accumulate solid feces in their gut during whole larval period (Figure 1d,e). From this finding, we hypothesized that this is a unique sanitation strategy to avoid potentially harmful ammonia contamination in a small, closed, water system.</p><p>Animals excrete nitrogen compounds when they metabolize protein nutrient sources. The mode of nitrogen excretion of animals varies according to their living environments. Generally, aquatic teleost fish and amphibian larvae metabolize waste nitrogen compounds to ammonia which is then excreted (Wright, <span>1995</span>). The large amount of water around aquatic animals quickly dilutes the excreted ammonia and prevents ammonia poisoning (Wright et al., <span>1993</span>). On the other hand, adult terrestrial amphibians and mammals metabolize waste nitrogen compounds to non-toxic urea which is excreted. This is because the amount of available water on land is too scarce to detoxify ammonia through dilution (Atkinson, <span>1992</span>). Similarly, reptiles and birds, whose embryos develop in hard eggshells, excrete nitrogen as uric acid, which is insoluble in water and less harmful (Wright, <span>1995</span>).</p><p>Thus, there is a close relationship between the organismal habitat and its mode of nitrogen excretion. Notably, animals living in a closed aquatic habitat may face the deleterious toxicity of nitrogen excretion. Amphibian larvae usually excrete nitrogen compounds in the form of ammonia (Wright, <span>1995</span>). However, in closed aquatic systems, ammonia may accumulate in living water, and larvae living in these environments could be exposed to high, toxic, ammonia levels. Here we show that <i>K. eiffingeri</i> larvae show unique adaptation to ammonia toxicity by not excreting feces and by increasing the tolerance to ammonia.</p><p>In this study, we firstly demonstrated reduced ammonia excretion by comparing the ammonia production of <i>K. eiffingeri</i> larvae with other pond—living frog larvae (<i>Dryophytes japonicus</i>, <i>Rana ornativentris</i>, and <i>Zhangixalus arboreus</i>). Secondly, we experimentally exposed the larvae to ammonium chloride solution and showed that <i>K. eiffingeri</i> larvae have greater ammonia tolerance.</p><p><i>K. eiffingeri</i> (Anura Rhacophoridae) is a small frog (3–4 cm in adult length) wh","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4428","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142276934","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":"Plant neighbors differentially alter a focal species' biotic interactions through changes to resource allocation","authors":"Sophia C. Turner,&nbsp;Jennifer A. Schweitzer","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4395","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4395","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Plant resource allocation strategies are thought to be largely a consequence of changing abiotic conditions and evolutionary history. However, biotic interactions also influence how a plant allocates resources. As a result, plants mediate indirect interactions between organisms above- and belowground through resource allocation. Neighboring plants can influence plant fitness directly through competition for resources, and indirectly by altering associated community interactions (associational effects), such as pollination, herbivory, and a suite of belowground interactions. Given the importance of community interactions for plant success, and the known ability for plant neighbors to change these interactions, the goal of this “pandemic project” was to understand how heterospecific plant neighbors alter plant resource allocation, whether this occurred through above- or belowground mechanisms, and whether this in turn alters biotic interactions and the relationship between a focal plant and its herbivore and soil community interactions. To do so, we established a common garden experiment, manipulating plant neighbor identity and the extent of interaction among neighbors (aboveground only, vs. above- and belowground interactions, using customized pot types), and measured changes to a focal plant and its biotic interactions over two growing seasons. We found evidence of both neighbor effects and pot type, showing that neighbor interactions affect a focal plant through both above- and belowground processes, and how the focal plant is affected depends on neighbor identity. Though neighbors did not directly alter herbivory or most soil microbial interactions, they did alter the relationship between belowground microbial communities and a plant response trait (specific leaf area). Plant resource allocation responses were reduced with time, showing the importance of extending experiments beyond a single growing season, and are an important consideration when making predictions about plant responses to changing conditions. This study contributes to a growing body of work showing how community contexts affect the above- and belowground interactions of a plant through plant resource allocation strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142275664","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":"Birds and bats reduce herbivory damage in Papua New Guinean highland forests","authors":"Elise Sivault,&nbsp;Bonny Koane,&nbsp;Lucia Chmurova,&nbsp;Katerina Sam","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4421","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4421","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Insectivorous predators, including birds and bats, play crucial roles in trophic cascades. However, previous research on these cascades has often relied on permanent predator exclosures, which prevent the isolation of specific effects of birds and bats, given their different activity patterns throughout the day. Moreover, limited knowledge exists regarding the variations in individual effects of these predators under different biotic and abiotic conditions, such as changes in elevation. To address these uncertainties, our study aimed to investigate the distinct effects of bats and birds on arthropod densities in foliage and herbivory damage in lowland and highland rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Predator exclosures were established for one month to exclude diurnal or nocturnal predators across 120 saplings (ca. 2.5–4 m tall) selected from two lowland and two highland forests (i.e., 30 saplings per study site) along the Mt. Wilhelm transect in PNG. Arthropods were collected and measured, and herbivory damage was analyzed at the end of the experiment. Birds significantly reduced arthropod densities by 30%, particularly in arthropods longer than 10 mm, regardless of elevation. Additionally, both birds and bats appeared to mitigate herbivory damage in highland forests, with protected saplings displaying up to 189% more herbivory. Our results support previous studies that have demonstrated the ability of insectivorous predators to reduce leaf damage through the control of arthropods. Furthermore, our approach highlights the importance and necessity of further research on the role of seasons and elevations in trophic cascades.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142304581","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":"FRUGIVORY CAMTRAP: A dataset of plant–animal interactions recorded with camera traps","authors":"Pablo Villalva,&nbsp;Blanca Arroyo-Correa,&nbsp;Gemma Calvo,&nbsp;Pablo Homet,&nbsp;Jorge Isla,&nbsp;Irene Mendoza,&nbsp;Eva Moracho,&nbsp;Elena Quintero,&nbsp;Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez,&nbsp;Pedro Jordano","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4424","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4424","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological interactions are a key component of biodiversity, essential for understanding ecosystem services and functioning. Recording and quantifying ecological interactions is challenging, frequently requiring complex logistics and substantial effort in the field. Camera traps are routinely used in ecology for various applications, and have proven to be an excellent method for passive and non-invasive sampling of plant–animal interactions. We implemented a standardized camera trap protocol to document vertebrate frugivores-fleshy fruited plants interactions in Doñana National Park, SW Spain, with the central objective of inventorying the diversity of plant–animal ecological interactions providing seed dispersal services. From 2018 to 2023 we recorded pairwise interactions from which we obtained qualitative (presence-absence) and quantitative (frequency of visits) information. Each record in the dataset contains information of a visit by an individual animal to an individual plant, resulting in any form of fleshy-fruit use and provides information on visitation phenology, visit length, and feeding behavior. The dataset presented here includes 10,659 frugivory interaction events for 59 vertebrate species (46 birds, 13 mammals) recorded on 339 plant individuals from 13 different plant species which dominate the fleshy-fruited plant assemblage in the Doñana National Park. The most recorded animal species consuming fruits and playing a legitimate seed dispersal role was <i>Curruca melanocephala</i> (1678 records) among birds and <i>Vulpes vulpes</i> among mammals (751 records). <i>Cervus elaphus</i>, a fruit consumer with a marginal role as legitimate seed disperser, was the most recorded mammal species (1508 records). Avian frugivores, particularly those from the Sylviidae and Turdidae families, are widespread in the region and play a crucial role in maintaining the dispersal service for the fleshy-fruited plant populations in the area. The dataset offers highly versatile quantitative information that can be used to investigate frugivory from the highest resolution scale, the interaction event between pairs of individuals. In addition, other information that can be extracted includes the timing of interactions of animals and plants (their phenological couplings), activity periods of the animals, behavior during the events and preferences for individual plants within populations. There are no copyright restrictions on the data. When using the data from this data paper in publications, we kindly request that you cite the paper accordingly. Additionally, we encourage researchers and educators to inform us about how they are using this data, as we value feedback and would like to be aware of its various applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4424","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142236276","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":"Mate-guarding male desert locusts act as parasol for ovipositing females in an extremely hot desert environment","authors":"Koutaro Ould Maeno,&nbsp;Sidi Ould Ely,&nbsp;Sid' Ahmed Ould Mohamed,&nbsp;Mohamed El Hacen Jaavar,&nbsp;Ahmed Salem Benahi,&nbsp;Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah Ebbe","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4416","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4416","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The desert locust, &lt;i&gt;Schistocerca gregaria&lt;/i&gt;, is an infamous transboundary pest. Although many desert-inhabiting ectotherms are nocturnal to avoid lethal hot temperatures, desert locusts move diurnally in the world's most extreme thermal environment, Sahara Desert (Magor et al., &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;; Uvarov, &lt;span&gt;1977&lt;/span&gt;). It is difficult for locusts to survive in such harsh environments; however, their adaptive strategies have been understudied due to lack of field studies (Cullen et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Maeno et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;, Maeno, Piou, Kearney, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During field observations over 10 years on these locusts (Maeno et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Maeno, Piou, Kearney, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Maeno, Piou, Ould Ely, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;), we noticed that gregarious-behaving desert locust females began to aggregate and oviposit after sunset when the ground temperature (&lt;i&gt;T&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;g&lt;/sub&gt;) decreased (Maeno, Piou, Ould Ely, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). We can easily understand that this behavior is adaptive because the ground temperature at night is not a risk factor for thermal constraints and because predation pressure could be low. However, some delayed-laying females began to lay eggs the following morning. These individuals were exposed to extremely hot conditions, with &lt;i&gt;T&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;g&lt;/sub&gt; beyond 50°C, which many insects cannot tolerate (Figure 1a,b) (Heinrich, &lt;span&gt;1999&lt;/span&gt;). Female desert locusts generally lay eggs underground by extending their abdomen (Uvarov, &lt;span&gt;1977&lt;/span&gt;). As oviposition takes a few hours (mean + SE: 143 + 8 min (range 93–192 min), &lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 14), immobile ovipositing females could not use common behavioral thermoregulatory strategies for cooling and were exposed to lethal thermal conditions; this raises the question of how ovipositing female locusts cope with adverse hot conditions. Even the Sahara silver ant, &lt;i&gt;Cataglyphis bicolor&lt;/i&gt;, which is known as the most heat-tolerant insect (up to 55.1°C), frequently perches on plants and runs for cooling (Pfeffer et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;). The mechanisms by which ovipositing female locusts avoid overheating remain unknown. To address this, we conducted field observations and experiments in Mauritania in 2013, 2016, and 2022.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During these field surveys, we observed daytime oviposition following nighttime group oviposition at a sandy and clay grounds site. During daytime (10:00–15:00), the majority of ovipositing females were mounted by males (2013: 96.8%, &lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 439; 2016: 89.3%, &lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 28; 2022: 95.6%, &lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 206). These observations coincide with high rates of mate-guarded females during the night (Maeno, Piou, Ould Ely, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). Mate-guarding males mounted the back of ovipositing females, exposing themselves to solar rays while maintaining a distance from the ground (Figure 1a). When the temperature increased, the ovipositing pairs oriented themselves par","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4416","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142304583","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":"Soil microbial influences over coexistence potential in multispecies plant communities in a subtropical forest","authors":"Weitao Wang,&nbsp;Hangyu Wu,&nbsp;Tingting Wu,&nbsp;Zijing Luo,&nbsp;Wei Lin,&nbsp;Hanlun Liu,&nbsp;Junli Xiao,&nbsp;Wenqi Luo,&nbsp;Yuanzhi Li,&nbsp;Youshi Wang,&nbsp;Chuliang Song,&nbsp;Gaurav Kandlikar,&nbsp;Chengjin Chu","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4415","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4415","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soil microbes have long been recognized to substantially affect the coexistence of pairwise plant species across terrestrial ecosystems. However, projecting their impacts on the coexistence of multispecies plant systems remains a pressing challenge. To address this challenge, we conducted a greenhouse experiment with 540 seedlings of five tree species in a subtropical forest in China and evaluated microbial effects on multispecies coexistence using the structural method, which quantifies how the structure of species interactions influences the likelihood for multiple species to persist. Specifically, we grew seedlings alone or with competitors in different microbial contexts and fitted individual biomass to a population dynamic model to calculate intra- and interspecific interaction strength with and without soil microbes. We then used these interaction structures to calculate two metrics of multispecies coexistence, structural niche differences (which promote coexistence) and structural fitness differences (which drive exclusion), for all possible communities comprising two to five plant species. We found that soil microbes generally increased both the structural niche and fitness differences across all communities, with a much stronger effect on structural fitness differences. A further examination of functional traits between plant species pairs found that trait differences are stronger predictors of structural niche differences than of structural fitness differences, and that soil microbes have the potential to change trait-mediated plant interactions. Our findings underscore that soil microbes strongly influence the coexistence of multispecies plant systems, and also add to the experimental evidence that the influence is more on fitness differences rather than on niche differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142231602","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":"Analysis of resting status reveals distinct elevational variation in metabolisms of lizards","authors":"Zhong-Wen Jiang,&nbsp;Liang Ma,&nbsp;Shi-ang Tao,&nbsp;Cheng Wenda,&nbsp;Chuyu Cheng,&nbsp;Dan-yang Wu,&nbsp;Wei-Guo Du","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4414","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4414","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Animals spend a considerable proportion of their life span at rest. However, resting status has often been overlooked when investigating how species respond to environmental conditions. This may induce a large bias in understanding the local adaptation of species across environmental gradients and their vulnerability to potential environmental change. Here, we conducted an empirical study on montane agamid lizards, combined with mechanistic modeling, to compare elevational variations in body temperature and metabolisms (cumulative digestion and maintenance cost) between resting and active status. Our study on three populations of an agamid lizard along an elevational gradient revealed a trend of decreasing body temperature toward higher elevations, the main contributor of which was resting status of the lizards. Using population-specific reaction norms, we predicted greater elevational variation in hourly and cumulative digestion for resting lizards than for active lizards. Climate-change impacts, estimated as the change in cumulative digestion, also show greater elevational variation when resting status is factored into the analysis. Further, our global analysis of 98 agamid species revealed that in about half of their combined distributional range, the contribution of resting status in determining the elevational variation in cumulative digestion and maintenance cost of lizards was greater than the contribution made by a lizard's active status. Our study highlights the importance of considering resting status when investigating how species respond to environmental conditions, especially for those distributed over tropical and subtropical mountain areas.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142170498","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":"Parasitic plants regulate C and N distribution among common mycorrhizal networks linking host and neighboring plants","authors":"Yongge Yuan,&nbsp;Cheng Han,&nbsp;Jiani Wang,&nbsp;Junmin Li","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4418","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4418","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) can link multiple plants and distribute nutrients among them. However, how parasitic plants regulate the carbon and nutrient exchange between CMNs and the linked plants is unknown. Thus, we conducted a container experiment with two <i>Trifolium pratense</i> grown in two plastic cores and connected only by CMNs using a 25-μm nylon fabric in each container. Host <i>T. pratense</i> was parasitized or not parasitized by <i>Cuscuta gronovii</i>. CMNs were left intact or broken by rotating the cores with the host or neighboring <i>T. pratense</i>. The dual ¹⁵N and ¹³C labeling method was used to evaluate the N distributed by CMNs to the host and neighboring <i>T. pratense</i> and the recently fixed C from the host and neighboring <i>T. pratense</i> to CMNs. The results showed that CMNs distributed more ¹⁵N to unparasitized neighboring <i>T. pratense</i> than the parasitized host <i>T. pratense</i>. Moreover, the unparasitized neighboring <i>T. pratense</i> provides more recently fixed C to CMNs than the parasitized host <i>T. pratense</i>. These results revealed that the parasite regulated C and nutrient exchange between CMNs and the linked plants following the reciprocal rewards rule. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of parasitic plants in the regulation of mutualistic interactions in ecological webs.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4418","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142165963","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":"Root and biomass allocation traits predict changes in plant species and communities over four decades of global change","authors":"Julie Messier,&nbsp;Antoine Becker-Scarpitta,&nbsp;Yuanzhi Li,&nbsp;Cyrille Violle,&nbsp;Mark Vellend","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4389","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4389","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Global change is affecting the distribution and population dynamics of plant species across the planet, leading to trends such as shifts in distribution toward the poles and to higher elevations. Yet, we poorly understand why individual species respond differently to warming and other environmental changes, or how the trait composition of communities responds. Here we ask two questions regarding plant species and community changes over 42 years of global change in a temperate montane forest in Québec, Canada: (1) How did the trait composition, alpha diversity, and beta diversity of understory vascular plant communities change between 1970 and 2010, a period over which the region experienced 1.5°C of warming and changes in nitrogen deposition? (2) Can traits predict shifts in species elevation and abundance over this time period? For 46 understory vascular species, we locally measured six aboveground traits, and for 36 of those (not including shrubs), we also measured five belowground traits. Collectively, they capture leading dimensions of phenotypic variation that are associated with climatic and resource niches. At the community level, the trait composition of high-elevation plots shifted, primarily for two root traits: specific root length decreased and rooting depth increased. The mean trait values of high-elevation plots shifted over time toward values initially associated with low-elevation plots. These changes led to trait homogenization across elevations. The community-level shifts in traits mirrored the taxonomic shifts reported elsewhere for this site. At the species level, two of the three traits predicting changes in species elevation and abundance were belowground traits (low mycorrhizal fraction and shallow rooting). These findings highlight the importance of root traits, which, along with leaf mass fraction, were associated with shifts in distribution and abundance over four decades. Community-level trait changes were largely similar across the elevational and temporal gradients. In contrast, traits typically associated with lower elevations at the community level did not predict differences among species in their shift in abundance or distribution, indicating a decoupling between species- and community-level responses. Overall, changes were consistent with some influence of both climate warming and increased nitrogen availability.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4389","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142165962","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":"Minimum habitat size required to detect new rare species","authors":"Youhua Chen,&nbsp;Tsung-Jen Shen","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4400","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4400","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Conservation of species requires the protection of the associated suitable habitat. However, it is usually not known how much habitat is required to detect a single rare species. This problem is important, and it is related directly to the success and optimization of conservation planning. However, to date, no statistical methods have been developed to address this problem adequately. In this study, from a statistical sampling theory, we propose an estimator to estimate the minimum area required to conserve one or more additional new rare species. The estimator is highly accurate, as demonstrated by numerical tests. Applying the estimator in a tropical forest plot showed that the additional habitat size required for discovering an additional individual of a previously unseen tropical tree species is about 3.86 ha with a SE of 1.10 ha. In conclusion, the proposed estimator may be applied to conservation planning by assisting conservation biologists and policymakers to balance urban-related and conservation-related land uses by estimating the minimum detection areas required for species.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"105 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142160800","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}