Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Herbivore effects on plant quality and quantity in a shortgrass prairie","authors":"Julie Rebh,&nbsp;Ellen A. R. Welti","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70192","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70192","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Earth's grasslands have experienced extensive alterations to their grazing regimes over the course of human history. We asked how native grassland herbivores (bison, prairie dogs, and grasshoppers) and a non-native herbivore that has become dominant (cattle) affect seasonal patterns of plant and soil elemental chemistry and aboveground plant biomass in a shortgrass prairie in the North American Northern Great Plains. To quantify herbivore effects, we sampled plants and soils across 4 months of the growing season in 15 grassland sites comprising five herbivore regimes with varying densities of bison, cattle, prairie dogs, and grasshoppers. Prairie dogs had the strongest herbivore effects on grass and soil chemistry, increasing grass N, K, and Mg, and increasing soil C and N. Both bison and cattle grazing increased grass Mg and decreased grass Si. Sites with higher grasshopper densities had higher soil P. Finally, the seasonal trajectory of aboveground plant biomass was altered by the use of insecticides in prairie dog towns, with the biomass at these sites peaking near the end of the growing season. Plant biomass peaked in mid-summer in all other herbivore regimes, with declines in the late growing season. This suggests that Orthopteran herbivores, taxa that tend to eat more in the late season when they are often in the adult stage, may have an overlooked contribution to seasonal aboveground plant biomass trajectories in temperate grasslands. Conservation and rewilding of grassland herbivores can maintain the critical nutrient cycling services that these taxa provide.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145021826","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":"Evaluating the contribution of individual variation in parasite-mediated anorexia to trophic cascades","authors":"Yen-Hua Huang,&nbsp;Vanessa O. Ezenwa","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70188","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70188","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent evidence suggests that parasite-mediated reductions in food intake (i.e., anorexia) in herbivores can trigger trophic cascades that increase producer biomass. This outcome assumes homogeneous host responses to parasite infection; however, individual variation in parasite-mediated anorexia is common. To understand the potential consequences of such variation, we quantified individual variation in host feeding responses to parasitism empirically using a wild herbivore–helminth system. We then evaluated the impact of ecologically relevant levels of variation in anorexia on producers using stochastic individual-based models composed of parasites, herbivores, and plants. Our empirical data showed that although higher helminth burdens were associated with lower population-level feeding rates, there was considerable individual variation in the presence and magnitude of anorexia. Our models revealed a pronounced effect of variation in anorexia prevalence but not magnitude on plants. Plant biomass increased as anorexia became prevalent in the herbivore population, and there was a strong dampening effect of anorexia prevalence on plant biomass variance, suggesting that parasite-mediated anorexia in herbivores can stabilize producer population dynamics. Interestingly, the association between higher anorexia prevalence and lower variance in plant biomass was due, in part, to negative feedback between herbivore feeding rates and helminth ingestion, suggesting that negative feedback between host behavior and parasitism, a phenomenon that can help stabilize certain host–parasite interactions, may have stabilizing effects that extend to other members of the ecological community via trophic cascades.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145007982","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":"Natal dispersal patterns in a social wild mammal: What does family tell us?","authors":"Marlène Gamelon,&nbsp;Jean-Pierre Coudrin,&nbsp;Gilles Capron,&nbsp;Alise Gilot,&nbsp;Éric Baubet,&nbsp;Jessica Cachelou,&nbsp;Jean-Michel Gaillard","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70190","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70190","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Natal dispersal is a key process in ecology and evolution. Similarities of dispersal patterns between relatives can lead to small-scale kin structure within populations with consequences for population dynamics and genetics. Most studies have focused on birds, lizards, and small mammals. How family effects may shape sex-specific natal dispersal patterns in a large-sized social mammal remains unexplored. We fill this gap thanks to a 30-year-long monitoring of a wild boar population. This polytocous, polygynous, and size dimorphic species displays a matrilineal social organization. From the monitoring of individuals from early life to adulthood, we characterized natal dispersal patterns by investigating the propensity to disperse and the dispersal distance. As expected for a species subjected to strong sexual selection, offspring males dispersed more often and farther than females. Looking specifically at similarities of dispersal patterns among relatives within a group, we found that offspring females from the same family displayed more similar dispersal propensity and distance than females from different groups, highlighting family effects. However, this dispersal pattern did not hold for males. Family effects can thus shape natal dispersal patterns in a sex-specific way in social mammals and are key to understanding individual variation in dispersal patterns.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70190","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145007980","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":"Joint species-trait distribution modeling: The role of intraspecific trait variation in community assembly","authors":"Nerea Abrego,&nbsp;Pekka Niittynen,&nbsp;Julia Kemppinen,&nbsp;Otso Ovaskainen","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70174","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70174","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The links between intraspecific trait variation and community assembly remain little studied, partially due to the lack of statistical methods to jointly model intraspecific trait variation and species abundances at the community level. Here, we extend the joint species distribution modeling (JSDM) framework into the joint species-trait distribution modeling (JSTDM) framework to explicitly link species abundances to phenotypic variation in traits for multiple species simultaneously. Using a case study of 65 tundra plant species abundances and 3 key functional traits measured across 325 sites, we show how the JSTDM approach (1) estimates the statistical associations among species abundances, species-level traits, and site-level traits, relative to environmental variation; (2) improves predictions on trait variation by using information on species abundances; and (3) generates hypotheses about trait-driven community assembly mechanisms. The JSTDM methodology presented in this study allows assessing the interplay between species abundances and traits at the community level, providing the much needed modeling tools to quantify the role of phenotypic trait variation in eco-evolutionary community assembly.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70174","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995726","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":"Long-term decline in montane insects under warming summers","authors":"Keith W. Sockman","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70187","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70187","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Widespread declines in the abundance of insects portend ill-fated futures for their host ecosystems, all of which require their services to function. For many such reports, human activities have directly altered the land or water of these ecosystems, raising questions about how insects in less impacted environments are faring. I quantified the abundance of flying insects during 15 seasons spanning 2004–2024 on a relatively unscathed, subalpine meadow in Colorado, where weather data have been recorded for 38 years. I discovered that insect abundance declined an average of 6.6% annually, yielding a 72.4% decline over this 20-year period. According to model selection following information theoretic analysis of 59 combinations of weather-related factors, a seasonal increase in insect abundance changed to a seasonal decline as the previous summer's temperatures increased. This resulted in a long-term decline associated with increasing summer temperatures, particularly daily lows, which have increased 0.8°C per decade. However, other factors, such as ecological succession and atmospheric elevation in nitrogen and carbon, are also plausible drivers. In a relatively pristine ecosystem, insects are declining precipitously, auguring poorly for this and other such ecosystems that depend on insects in food webs and for pollination, pest control, and nutrient cycling.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70187","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995725","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":"Is individual heterogeneity in growth rates relevant to population dynamics of long-lived reptiles?","authors":"Doug P. Armstrong,&nbsp;Matthew G. Keevil,&nbsp;Patrick D. Moldowan,&nbsp;Njal Rollinson,&nbsp;Jacqueline D. Litzgus,&nbsp;Ronald J. Brooks","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70185","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70185","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Many populations show pronounced individual heterogeneity in traits such as somatic growth rates, but the relevance of this heterogeneity to population dynamics remains unclear. Individual heterogeneity may be particularly relevant to long-lived organisms for which vital rates (survival and reproduction) increase with adult growth, as subtle differences in growth rates can have major fitness consequences. Previous analysis of data for snapping turtles (<i>Chelydra serpentina</i>) in Algonquin Park, Canada, from 1972 to 2012 showed that individual heterogeneity in growth rates and size-specific reproductive rates of adult females led to eightfold variation in lifetime reproductive output. Here, we test whether this individual heterogeneity affects population dynamics by comparing projections from alternative integrated population models (IPMs) where: (1) vital rates of adult females increase with size and there is individual heterogeneity in their adult growth and reproduction parameters as well as their ages at maturity; (2) vital rates increase with size but there is no individual heterogeneity; or (3) vital rates are assumed equal among adult females. The three IPMs all integrated component models for growth, reproduction, and survival, incorporated random annual variation in rates, and used data augmentation to model unobserved individuals including future recruits. The data augmentation approach allowed the individual heterogeneity in parameters to be extrapolated from observed to unobserved individuals under Model 1. Models 1 and 2 produced similar annual estimates of recruitment, mortality, and abundance from 1972 to 2012 and similar projections for the next 10 years. Those projections had wide prediction intervals (5% increase to 73% decline) due to annual variation in rates but were consistent with the 59% decline estimated based on new data collected from 2012 to 2022. The projected decline reflected predicted decreases in survival and recruitment due to a decrease in the average body size of adult females. Consequently, Model 3 gave more optimistic projections that were inconsistent with the observed decline. The results therefore showed that the size composition of adult females, and therefore their overall somatic growth rate, was important to the dynamics of the population. However, the results also indicated that the pronounced individual heterogeneity in growth rates observed was irrelevant to population dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70185","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995727","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":"Ants and extrafloral nectary-bearing plants: A dataset of interactions and outcomes","authors":"Samuel Novais,&nbsp;Noemí Matías-Ferrer,&nbsp;Betsabé Ruíz-Guerra,&nbsp;Cássio Cardoso Pereira,&nbsp;Daniel Negreiros,&nbsp;Armando Aguirre-Jaimes","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70186","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70186","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) are specialized plant glands that secrete nectar but are not related to pollination. Several ants feed on EFNs and, in exchange, they often attack herbivores, reducing the consumption of leaf tissue and floral parts, and enhancing plant performance. Although most empirical studies and reviews have demonstrated that ant visitation benefits EFN-bearing plants, many others have failed to show ants as protective partners. Despite the increasing number of papers dealing with plant defense mediated by EFNs in the last 30 years, there has been no comprehensive effort to synthesize knowledge on this topic. In fact, due to strict inclusion criteria, recent meta-analyses have considered only a small fraction of the published studies on ant–EFN-bearing plant interactions. Therefore, we set out to compile the available published information about ants feeding on EFNs, ranging from descriptive to experimental studies. This dataset includes 342 studies and 4766 records of ants feeding directly on EFNs. When available, we also extracted the outcomes of the interactions from each study. In addition, the effects of ants on herbivory, herbivore abundance, fruit set, and seed set (the response variables with most data) were summarized. The data were gathered from studies published between 1941 and February 2024, across 40 countries and several ecosystems in temperate and tropical zones. Brazil and Mexico were by far the countries with the most records. Ants visiting EFNs were recorded on plants from 30 orders, 65 families, 246 genera, and 441 species. Fabaceae was the family with the greatest number of records (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 1208, 25.3%), followed by Passifloraceae (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 430, 9%) and Bignoniaceae (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 269, 5.6%). &lt;i&gt;Passiflora&lt;/i&gt; was the genus with the greatest number of records (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 254, 5.3%), followed by &lt;i&gt;Chamaecrista&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 241, 5.1%) and &lt;i&gt;Turnera&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 176, 3.4%). A total of 7 subfamilies, 82 genera, and 519 ant species were found associated with EFNs. Formicinae was the subfamily with the greatest number of records (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 1771, 37.2%), followed by Myrmicinae (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 1609, 33.8%). &lt;i&gt;Camponotus&lt;/i&gt; was the genus with the greatest number of records (1173, 24.6%), followed by &lt;i&gt;Crematogaster&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 518, 10.9%) and &lt;i&gt;Pseudomyrmex&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 437, 9.2%). The effects of ants on herbivory, herbivore abundance, fruit set, and seed set were explored separately for community- and species-level studies. Ants led to a decrease in herbivory in 67.4% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 58) of the community-level studies and in 54.2% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 26) of the species-level studies. Similarly, 75.9% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 44) and 72.4% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 21) of the studies showed a decrease in herbivore abundance caused by ants in community- and species-level studies, respectively. Regarding plant fitness, ants led to an increase in fruit set in 42.9% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 21) of the community-level studies and in 52% (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 13)","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70186","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995730","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":"Invasive predatory fish occupies highest trophic position leading to expansion of isotopic niches in a riverine food web","authors":"Olivia C. Hodgson,&nbsp;Sydney Stark,&nbsp;Megan K. Schall,&nbsp;Geoffrey D. Smith,&nbsp;Kelly L. Smalling,&nbsp;Tyler Wagner","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70180","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70180","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Invasive species are drivers of ecological change with the potential to reshape the structure and function of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The invasive flathead catfish (<i>Pylodictis olivaris</i>) is an opportunistic predator that has established a rapidly growing population in the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, USA, since they were first detected in 2002. Although the predatory effects of invasive catfishes on native fish communities have been documented, the effects of invasion on riverine food webs are poorly understood. This study quantified the effects of invasive flathead catfish on the trophic position (TP) and isotopic niche of the river's food web by comparing invaded and non-invaded sites. In addition to flathead catfish, the food web components examined included crayfish, minnows, and two ecologically and socioeconomically important fish species: the smallmouth bass (<i>Micropterus dolomieu</i>) and channel catfish (<i>Ictalurus punctatus</i>). We found that flathead catfish occupied the highest TP, with a posterior mean TP of 3.08 (95% credible interval = [2.71, 3.42]), exceeding that of the two resident fish predators, the smallmouth bass and channel catfish. The TP of the resident channel catfish, which occupies a similar ecological niche, declined after flathead catfish invasion. In fact, there was a 0.92 posterior probability that channel catfish TP was lower in invaded sites than at non-invaded sites. Using a Bayesian bivariate ellipses analysis, we found overwhelming evidence of isotopic niche expansion and overlap for all components of the food web in the presence of flathead catfish. These findings support the “trophic disruption hypothesis,” where an introduced species prompts resident species to change diets in an attempt to avoid competition and predation following invasion. Our results indicate that flathead catfish invasion is altering food web structure and energy flow in a large riverine ecosystem and contributes to the breadth of knowledge regarding how ecosystems may respond to the introduction of a large predatory fish species.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70180","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995722","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":"Transgenerational pathogen effects: Maternal pathogen exposure reduces offspring fitness","authors":"Kristina M. McIntire,&nbsp;Marcin K. Dziuba,&nbsp;Elizabeth B. Haywood,&nbsp;Miles L. Robertson,&nbsp;Megan Vaandrager,&nbsp;Emma Baird,&nbsp;Fiona E. Corcoran,&nbsp;Taleah Nelson,&nbsp;Michael H. Cortez,&nbsp;Meghan A. Duffy","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70165","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70165","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pathogens can alter the phenotype not only of exposed hosts, but also of future generations. Transgenerational immune priming, where parental infection drives reduced susceptibility of offspring, has been particularly well explored, but pathogens can also alter life history traits of offspring. Here, we examined the potential for transgenerational impacts of a microsporidian pathogen, <i>Ordospora pajunii</i>, by experimentally measuring the impact of maternal exposure on offspring fitness in the presence and absence of parasites, and then developing mathematical models that explored the population-level impacts of these transgenerational effects. We did not find evidence of transgenerational immune priming: offspring of exposed mothers became infected at high rates, similar to offspring of unexposed mothers, and the infection burden did not differ between these two groups. We also did not find any evidence of transgenerational tolerance, where daughters of exposed mothers have higher fitness after infection. Instead, we found evidence for negative transgenerational impacts of infection: uninfected offspring of exposed mothers had substantially greater early life mortality than uninfected offspring of unexposed mothers. Offspring of exposed mothers also had reduced growth rates, fewer clutches, and fewer offspring. We propose that these observations should be considered transgenerational virulence, where a pathogen reduces the fitness of the offspring of infected hosts. Our parameterized mathematical model allowed us to explore the impacts of transgenerational virulence at the population level. If transgenerational virulence manifests as decreased reproduction or increased mortality in offspring, as we saw in the empirical portion of our study, this reduces total host density, infection prevalence, and infected host density, which could have implications for both host conservation and spillover risk. We propose that transgenerational virulence might be common and is a concept worthy of further empirical and theoretical exploration.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.70165","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144998987","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":"Thermal responses of feeding rates differ across co-occurring predator species","authors":"Zoey R. Neale,&nbsp;Volker H. W. Rudolf","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70184","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70184","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Changes in global temperature regimes are expected to transform species interactions in natural communities. However, predicting the consequences of warming on populations and communities is challenging because species interact with a range of community members. In theory, species should be adapted to their local temperature regimes, which might suggest a parallel shift across species interactions. But this may not hold if differences in traits (e.g., physiology or ecology) between sympatric species lead to concurrent differences in thermal responses. Here, we compare the thermal responses of feeding rates of six aquatic predator species from the same community feeding on the same prey species. Individual predators were experimentally exposed to temperatures ranging from 5 to 35°C spanning the temperature range of their native habitat. We found qualitative and quantitative differences in thermal response curves of per capita feeding rates across species that led to a shift in the rankings of species' per capita predation rates along the temperature gradient. Of the six species tested, two species demonstrated maximum feeding rates at intermediate temperatures, while feeding rates of the other four species increased monotonically. Additional experiments indicated the lethal temperatures for each predator were greater than the maximum temperature at which prey could survive, though for some, it was only greater by 2–3°C. Interestingly, this suggests that the decline in predation rates at higher temperatures predicted by past studies may not always be biologically relevant in natural systems. Furthermore, we found that the feeding rates of consumers differed in thermal optimum and sensitivity to changes in temperature. Consequently, increasing feeding rates with rising temperatures in one species could be offset by decreasing feeding rates in another. These results indicate the need to account for differences in the thermal per capita responses among predator species within communities to predict how temperature changes across seasons and years influence the interactions and dynamics of natural communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144995724","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}