Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Erratum to “Poor relationships between NEON airborne observation platform data and field-based vegetation traits at a mesic grassland”","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4497","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4497","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pau, S., J. B. Nippert, R. Slapikas, D. Griffith, S. Bachle, B. R. Helliker, R. C. O'Connor, W. J. Riley, C. J. Still, and M. Zaricor. 2022. “Poor Relationships Between NEON Airborne Observation Platform Data and Field-Based Vegetation Traits at a Mesic Grassland.” <i>Ecology</i> 103(2): e03590. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3590.</p><p>Two of the four NEON Aerial Observation Platform (AOP)–derived data products analyzed in this paper, canopy nitrogen (DP3.30018.001; accessed June 1, 2020) and total biomass (DP3.30016.001; accessed June 1, 2020), were suspended while this article was in revision. These data suspensions were noted in the published code, and the authors affirm the data suspensions do not affect the primary results or conclusions.</p><p>Finally, none of the analyses, results, or conclusions based on the full orthorectified raw surface reflectance data (DP3.30006.001; accessed June 1, 2020; not currently suspended) are affected by the data suspensions.</p><p>Overall, the authors' results demonstrate that the AOP data they analyzed cannot be used to infer certain vegetation traits without extensive ground validation at their diverse, high-biomass grassland site at 1-m spatial resolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4497","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143070399","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":"Lack of successful sexual reproduction suggests the irreversible parthenogenesis in a stick insect","authors":"Tomonari Nozaki,&nbsp;Yasuhiko Chikami,&nbsp;Koki Yano,&nbsp;Ryuta Sato,&nbsp;Kenji Suetsugu,&nbsp;Shingo Kaneko","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4522","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4522","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;While parthenogenesis offers short-term reproductive benefits and demographic advantages, a lack of mating can result in problems such as the accumulation of deleterious mutations in the long term. Recently, cryptic sexual activity has been detected in some ancient parthenogenetic lineages (Boyer et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Freitas et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Vakhrusheva et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;), most likely mediated by rarely occurring males. The rare males can be produced by parthenogenetic reproduction, presumably due to developmental errors, including incomplete chromosomal segregation (van der Kooi &amp; Schwander, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;). Surprisingly, such rare males often retain sexual functions, implying that genes expressed only in males remain functional for a long time, even in parthenogenetic lineages (van der Kooi &amp; Schwander, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;). The presence of rare functional males or functional male-specific genes raises questions about the asexuality of long-standing parthenogenetic lineages (Boyer et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Phasmida, the group of stick and leaf insects, is well-studied in terms of the evolution of parthenogenetic lineages (e.g., Bedford, &lt;span&gt;1978&lt;/span&gt;; Brock, &lt;span&gt;2000&lt;/span&gt;; Morgan-Richards et al., &lt;span&gt;2010&lt;/span&gt;; Pantel, &lt;span&gt;1917&lt;/span&gt;). Many species are recognized as obligately parthenogenetic, yet rarely occurring males have often been described (see Appendix S1: Table S1). However, the functionality of these males is rarely directly examined, due to the difficulty in sample collection. Exceptionally, rare males have been studied in ancient asexual species of &lt;i&gt;Timema&lt;/i&gt; stick insects; these males copulate with the females of sister sexual species and successfully produce offspring (Schwander et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;). Furthermore, a recent study detected evidence of rare sex in several species of asexual &lt;i&gt;Timema&lt;/i&gt;, which should be mediated by rare males (Freitas et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;). These findings suggest that rare males may be responsible for gene flow in the parthenogenetic stick insects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Ramulus mikado&lt;/i&gt; is the most common stick insect in Japan and is known as a parthenogenetic species (Ichikawa, &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Nagashima, &lt;span&gt;2001&lt;/span&gt;; Yano et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). Males of &lt;i&gt;R. mikado&lt;/i&gt; are often reported in academic journals or newspapers due to their extreme rarity, with only about 10 reported cases (Appendix S1: Table S1). Here, we were fortunate to obtain one live male, six specimens of males, and eggs after mating between rare males and females (Appendix S1: Table S2) and examined the sexual functions of rare males in these stick insects. The external morphology of these rare males was consistent with the previous reports (Appendix S1: Figure S1; Nagashima, &lt;span&gt;2001&lt;/span&gt;; Yano et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). No males exhibited abnormal external morphology, such as sex mosaicism (details in Appendix S1: Section S1).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First, we observ","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4522","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143056380","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":"The biodiversity of ice-free Antarctica database","authors":"Aleks Terauds,&nbsp;Jasmine R. Lee,&nbsp;Hannah S. Wauchope,&nbsp;Ben Raymond,&nbsp;Dana M. Bergstrom,&nbsp;Peter Convey,&nbsp;Claire Mason,&nbsp;Charlotte R. Patterson,&nbsp;Sharon A. Robinson,&nbsp;Anton Van de Putte,&nbsp;David Watts,&nbsp;Steven L. Chown","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70000","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70000","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Antarctica is one of Earth's most untouched, inhospitable, and poorly known regions. Although knowledge of its biodiversity has increased over recent decades, a diverse, wide-ranging, and spatially explicit compilation of the biodiversity that inhabits Antarctica's permanently ice-free areas is unavailable. This absence hinders both Antarctic biodiversity research and the integration of Antarctica in global biodiversity–related studies. Fundamental and applied research on biodiversity patterns, ecological structure and function, and options for conservation are reliant on spatially resolved, taxonomically consistent observations. Such information is especially important for modern, data-driven biodiversity science, in both Antarctica and globally, and forms the backbone of biodiversity informatics, reflected, for example, in the Darwin Core Standard used by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Biodiversity data are also essential to fulfill the conservation requirements for Antarctica, as set out in the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and inform the design of systematic surveys to address biodiversity and ecological knowledge gaps, for both specific taxa and ecosystems. Such surveys are key requirements for understanding and mitigating the impacts of environmental change on the region's biodiversity. Here, we address these requirements through the public release of The Biodiversity of Ice-free Antarctica Database. In 2008, we extracted a subset of biodiversity records only from terrestrial ice-free areas from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Antarctic Biodiversity Database. We have subsequently added thousands of records from a range of sources: checking, and where necessary (and possible), correcting the spatial location, clarifying, cross-referencing, and harmonizing taxonomy with globally recognized sources, and documenting the original source of records. The Biodiversity of Ice-free Antarctica Database spans the early 1800s to 2019 (with most records collected after 1950) and represents the most comprehensive consolidation of Antarctic ice-free biodiversity occurrence data yet compiled into a single database. The Biodiversity of Ice-free Antarctica Database contains 35,654 records of 1890 species in over 800 genera across six kingdoms and spans all Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions. These data are released under a CC BY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11772906/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143054592","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":"Early life stage bottleneck determines rates of coral recovery following severe disturbance","authors":"Kelly E. Speare,&nbsp;Lauren N. Enright,&nbsp;Allison Aplin,&nbsp;Thomas C. Adam,&nbsp;Peter J. Edmunds,&nbsp;Deron E. Burkepile","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4510","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4510","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how foundation species recover from disturbances is key for predicting the future of ecosystems in the Anthropocene. Coral reefs are dynamic ecosystems that can undergo rapid declines in coral abundance following disturbances. Understanding why some reefs recover quickly from these disturbances whereas others recover slowly (or not at all) gives insight into the drivers of community resilience. From 2006 to 2010 coral reefs on the fore reef of Moorea, French Polynesia, experienced severe disturbances that reduced coral cover from ~46% in 2005 to &lt;1% in 2010. Following these disturbances, coral cover increased from 2010 to 2018. Although there was a rapid and widespread recovery of corals, reefs at 17 m depth recovered more slowly than reefs at 10 m depth. We investigated the drivers of different rates of coral recovery between depths from 2010 to 2018 using a combination of time-series data on coral recruitment, density, growth, and mortality in addition to field experiments testing for the effects of predation. Propagule abundance did not influence recovery, as the density of coral recruits (spat &lt;6 months old) did not differ between depths. However, mortality of juvenile corals (≤5 cm diameter) was higher at 17 m, leading to densities of juvenile corals 3.5 times higher at 10 m than at 17 m depth. Yet, there were no differences in the growth of corals between depths. These results point to an early life stage bottleneck after settlement, resulting in greater mortality at 17 m than at 10 m as the likely driver of differential coral recovery between depths. We used experiments and time-series data to test mechanisms that could drive different rates of juvenile coral mortality across depths, including differences in predation, competition, and the availability of suitable substratum. The results of these experiments suggested that increased coral mortality at 17 m may have been influenced by higher intensity of fish predation, and higher mortality of corals attached to unfavorable substratum. In contrast, the abundance of macroalgae, a coral competitor, did not explain differences in coral survival. Our work suggests that top-down processes and substratum quality can create bottlenecks in corals that can drive rates of coral recovery after disturbance.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11771621/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143049202","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":"The influence of lightning on insect and fungal dynamics in a lowland tropical forest","authors":"Kane A. Lawhorn,&nbsp;Jeannine H. Richards,&nbsp;Evan M. Gora,&nbsp;Jeffrey C. Burchfield,&nbsp;Phillip M. Bitzer,&nbsp;Cesar Gutierrez,&nbsp;Stephen P. Yanoviak","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4521","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4521","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Lightning strikes are a common source of disturbance in tropical forests, and a typical strike generates large quantities of dead wood. Lightning-damaged trees are a consistent resource for tropical saproxylic (i.e., dead wood-dependent) organisms, but patterns of consumer colonization and succession following lightning strikes are not known. Here, we documented the occurrence of four common consumer taxa spanning multiple trophic levels—beetles, <i>Azteca</i> ants, termites, and fungi—in lightning strike sites and nearby undamaged control sites over time in a lowland forest of Panama. Beetle abundance was 10 times higher in lightning strike sites than in paired control sites, and beetle assemblages were compositionally distinct. Those in strike sites were initially dominated by bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Platypodinae, Scolytinae); bark and ambrosia beetles, and predaceous taxa increased in abundance relatively synchronously. Beetle activity and fungal fruiting bodies, respectively, were 3.8 and 12.2 times more likely to be observed in lightning-damaged trees in strike sites versus undamaged trees in paired control sites, whereas the occurrence probabilities of <i>Azteca</i> ants and termites were similar between damaged trees in lightning strike sites and undamaged trees in control sites. Tree size also was important; larger dead trees in strike sites were more likely to support beetles, termites, and fungal fruiting bodies, and larger trees—regardless of mortality status—were more likely to host <i>Azteca</i>. Beetle presence was associated with higher rates of subsequent fungal presence, providing some evidence of beetle-associated priority effects on colonization patterns. These results suggest that lightning plays a key role in supporting tropical insect and fungal consumers by providing localized patches of suitable habitat. Any climate-driven changes in lightning frequency in tropical forests will likely affect a broad suite of consumer organisms, potentially altering ecosystem-level processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143054593","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":"Plant growth strategies and microbial contributions to ecosystem nitrogen retention along a soil acidification gradient","authors":"Ying Zhang,&nbsp;Ruzhen Wang,&nbsp;Baitao Gu,&nbsp;Heyong Liu,&nbsp;Feike A. Dijkstra,&nbsp;Xingguo Han,&nbsp;Yong Jiang","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4515","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4515","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Nitrogen (N) retention is a critical ecosystem function associated with sustainable N supply. Lack of experimental evidence limits our understanding of how grassland N retention can vary with soil acidification. A ¹⁵N-labeling experiment was conducted for 2 years to quantify N retention by soil pathways and plant functional groups across a soil-acidification gradient in a meadow. The ¹⁵N added to the ecosystem was mainly intercepted by the soil (up to 87.3%). Within the soil, ¹⁵N recovery in ammonium, dissolved organic N, microbial biomass, and amino sugars (a proxy for microbial necromass) represented approximately 46% of soil-retained ¹⁵N. ¹⁵N recovery in these N fractions increased with acidification, highlighting the complexity of microbial N transformations that affect ecosystem N retention. Plant ¹⁵N-retention increased in sedges, decreased in forbs, and was unaffected in grasses with acidification, reflecting their divergent associations with mycorrhizas and sensitivities to soil acidification. Soil microbial biomass was the key variable delineating soil N retention, while sedges were critical for plant N retention, resulting in a clear trade-off and competition in ¹⁵N retention between the two compartments. Overall, acidification might curb N losses by strengthening microbial retention and shifting plant N retention among different plant growth strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143049203","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":"Nitrogen fixation may not alleviate stoichiometric imbalances that limit primary production in eutrophic lake ecosystems","authors":"Isabelle M. Andersen,&nbsp;Jason M. Taylor,&nbsp;Patrick T. Kelly,&nbsp;Alexa K. Hoke,&nbsp;Caleb J. Robbins,&nbsp;J. Thad Scott","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4516","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4516","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecosystem-scale primary production may be proximately limited by nitrogen (N) but ultimately limited by phosphorus (P) because N₂ fixation contributes new N that accumulates relative to P at ecosystem scales. However, the duration needed to transition between proximate N limitation and ultimate P limitation remains unknown for most ecosystems, including lakes. Here we present the results of a fully replicated, multi-annual lake mesocosm experiment that permitted full air-water-sediment interactions that mimicked lake ecosystem ecology. We manipulated N supply relative to P to achieve a gradient of N:P stoichiometry. Despite N₂ fixation contributing as much as 80% of reactive N in the low N treatments, phytoplankton biomass in these treatments was not different from the unfertilized controls. This suggests that primary production remained N limited in the lowest N treatments, even when N₂ fixation was substantial. Although fixed N inputs reduced the N imbalance relative to P in the low N treatments seasonally, fixed N did not accumulate over multiple years. Additionally, reactive N did not readily accumulate in the high N treatments. Instead, water column stoichiometry was proportional to the experimental N and P additions, suggesting a strong influence from external nutrient loading. Thus, we found no evidence that N accumulation from N₂ fixation was sufficient to trigger a transition to ultimate P limitation seasonally or across our 3-year experiment. Rather, our results indicate that proximate N limitation perpetuates in eutrophic lakes, likely due to N export being proportional to its inputs. These findings offer new insight regarding the biogeochemical controls on ecosystem stoichiometry and their influence on the timeframe for proximate N limitation and ultimate P limitation in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4516","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143030737","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":"Costs and benefits of maternal nest choice: Trade-offs between brood survival and thermal stress in bees","authors":"Jessie L. deHaan,&nbsp;Jesse Maretzki,&nbsp;Adonis Skandalis,&nbsp;Glenn J. Tattersall,&nbsp;Miriam H. Richards","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4525","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4525","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Optimal nest site selection is crucial in animals whose offspring are completely dependent on the shelter of a nest. Parental decisions influencing nest thermal conditions are particularly important because temperature strongly influences juvenile activity, metabolism, growth, developmental rate, survival, and adult body size. In small ectotherms such as bees, maternal decisions to nest in sun-exposed or shady sites can lead to marked differences in thermal microenvironments inside nests. Small carpenter bees (<i>Ceratina calcarata</i>) strongly prefer to nest in sun but also prefer nesting substrates more frequently found in shade, suggesting that nest site selection is based on a trade-off between costs and benefits of warmer versus cooler nest sites. We investigated the consequences of sun and shade nesting for mothers and their offspring using a field experiment in which mothers and newly founded nests were placed in sunny or shady habitats. Maternal costs and benefits in each treatment were quantified by comparing maternal foraging effort, nest size, number of brood provisioned, and number and size of live offspring. These demographic measures allowed us to estimate fitness for mothers nesting in sun versus shade. For juvenile bees from sun and shade nests, we quantified two thermal traits, high-temperature tolerance (CT_max) and metabolic rate. Mothers in sun nests had significantly higher nesting success, with 59% of all nests producing brood, while mothers in shade nests experienced only 32% success. Successful sun nests actually contained fewer live brood (5.2 ± 3.0, mean ± SD) than shade nests (6.9 ± 3.3), but their higher success rates meant that maternal fitness was higher in sun than in shade. However, sun nesting entailed clear costs to brood, which were significantly smaller, less likely to survive to adulthood, and had significantly elevated CT_max, suggesting that thermal stress during development necessitated them to shunt resources from growth to thermoprotection. The maternal preferences for sun nesting optimize maternal fitness despite the evident costs to juveniles developing in sun-exposed nests.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11755220/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143026258","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":"Canopy complexity drives positive effects of tree diversity on productivity in two tree diversity experiments","authors":"Catherine Fahey,&nbsp;Dennis Choi,&nbsp;Jianmin Wang,&nbsp;Grant M. Domke,&nbsp;Joseph D. Edwards,&nbsp;Songlin Fei,&nbsp;Stephanie N. Kivlin,&nbsp;Elizabeth A. LaRue,&nbsp;Melissa K. McCormick,&nbsp;William J. McShea,&nbsp;Richard P. Phillips,&nbsp;Jamie Pullen,&nbsp;John D. Parker","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4500","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4500","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Forest canopy complexity (i.e., the three-dimensional structure of the canopy) is often associated with increased species diversity as well as high primary productivity across natural forests. However, canopy complexity, tree diversity, and productivity are often confounded in natural forests, and the mechanisms of these relationships remain unclear. Here, we used two large tree diversity experiments in North America to assess three hypotheses: (1) increasing tree diversity leads to increased canopy complexity, (2) canopy complexity is positively related to tree productivity, and (3) the relationship between tree diversity and tree productivity is indirect and driven by the positive effects of canopy complexity. We found that increasing tree diversity from monocultures to mixtures of 12 species increases canopy complexity and productivity by up to 71% and 73%, respectively. Moreover, structural equation modeling indicates that the effects of tree diversity on productivity are indirect and mediated primarily by changes in internal canopy complexity. Ultimately, we suggest that increasing canopy complexity can be a major mechanism by which tree diversity enhances productivity in young forests.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecy.4500","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143026177","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":"Predictive models are indeed useful for causal inference","authors":"James D. Nichols,&nbsp;Evan G. Cooch","doi":"10.1002/ecy.4517","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.4517","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The subject of investigating causation in ecology has been widely discussed in recent years, especially by advocates of a structural causal model (SCM) approach. Some of these advocates have criticized the use of predictive models and model selection for drawing inferences about causation. We argue that the comparison of model-based predictions with observations is a key step in hypothetico-deductive (H-D) science and remains a valid approach for assessing causation. We draw a distinction between two approaches to inference based on predictive modeling. The first approach is not guided by causal hypotheses and focuses on the relationship between a (typically) single response variable and a potentially large number of covariates. We agree that this approach does not yield useful inferences about causation and is primarily useful for hypothesis generation. The second approach follows a H-D framework and is guided by specific hypotheses about causal relationships. We believe that this has been, and continues to be, a useful approach to causal inference. Here, we first define different kinds of causation, arguing that a “probability-raisers-of-processes” definition is especially appropriate for many ecological systems. We outline different scientific “designs” for generating the observations used to investigate causation. We briefly outline some relevant components of the SCM and H-D approaches to investigating causation, emphasizing a H-D approach that focuses on modeling causal effects on vital rate (e.g., rates of survival, recruitment, local extinction, colonization) parameters underlying system dynamics. We consider criticisms of predictive modeling leveled by some SCM proponents and provide two example analyses of ecological systems that use predictive modeling and avoid these criticisms. We conclude that predictive models have been, and can continue to be, useful for providing inferences about causation.</p>","PeriodicalId":11484,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143026265","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}