{"title":"Cranial endothermy in mobulid rays: Evolutionary and ecological implications of a thermogenic brain.","authors":"M C Arostegui","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14200","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The large, metabolically expensive brains of manta and devil rays (Mobula spp.) may act as a thermogenic organ representing a unique mechanistic basis for cranial endothermy among fishes that improves central nervous system function in cold waters. Whereas early hominids in hot terrestrial environments may have experienced a thermal constraint to evolving larger brain size, cetaceans and mobulids in cold marine waters may have experienced a thermal driver for enlargement of a thermogenic brain. The potential for brain enlargement to yield the dual outcomes of cranial endothermy and enhanced cognition in mobulids suggests one may be an evolutionary by-product of selection for the mechanisms underlying the other, and highlights the need to account for non-cognitive functions when translating brain size into cognitive capacity. Computational scientific imaging offers promising avenues for addressing the pressing mechanistic and phylogenetic questions needed to assess the theory that cranial endothermy in mobulids is the result of temperature-driven selection for a brain with augmented thermogenic potential.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142466071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Nicholas J Russo, Docas L Nshom, António Ferraz, Nicolas Barbier, Martin Wikelski, Michael J Noonan, Elsa M Ordway, Sassan Saatchi, Thomas B Smith
{"title":"Three-dimensional vegetation structure drives patterns of seed dispersal by African hornbills.","authors":"Nicholas J Russo, Docas L Nshom, António Ferraz, Nicolas Barbier, Martin Wikelski, Michael J Noonan, Elsa M Ordway, Sassan Saatchi, Thomas B Smith","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14202","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Three-dimensional (3D) vegetation structure influences animal movements and, consequently, ecosystem functions. Animals disperse the seeds of 60%-90% of trees in tropical rainforests, which are among the most structurally complex ecosystems on Earth. Here, we investigated how 3D rainforest structure influences the movements of large, frugivorous birds and resulting spatial patterns of seed dispersal. We GPS-tracked white-thighed (Bycanistes albotibialis) and black-casqued hornbills (Ceratogymna atrata) in a study area surveyed by light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in southern Cameroon. We found that both species preferred areas of greater canopy height and white-thighed hornbill preferred areas of greater vertical complexity. In addition, 33% of the hornbills preferred areas close to canopy gaps, while 16.7% and 27.8% avoided large and small gaps, respectively. White-thighed hornbills avoided swamp habitats, while black-casqued increased their preference for swamps during the hottest temperatures. We mapped spatial probabilities of seed dispersal by hornbills, showing that 3D structural attributes shape this ecological process by influencing hornbill behaviour. These results provide evidence of a possible feedback loop between rainforest vegetation structure and seed dispersal by animals. Interactions between seed dispersers and vegetation structure described here are essential for understanding ecosystem functions in tropical rainforests and critical for predicting how rainforests respond to anthropogenic impacts.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142466075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Casey J Wagnon, Brandon T Bestelmeyer, Robert L Schooley
{"title":"Dryland state transitions alter trophic interactions in a predator-prey system.","authors":"Casey J Wagnon, Brandon T Bestelmeyer, Robert L Schooley","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14197","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Environmental change is expected to alter trophic interactions and food web dynamics with consequences for ecosystem structure, function and stability. However, the mechanisms by which environmental change influences top-down and bottom-up processes are poorly documented. Here, we examined how environmental change caused by shrub encroachment affects trophic interactions in a dryland. The predator-prey system included an apex canid predator (coyote; Canis latrans), an intermediate canid predator (kit fox; Vulpes macrotis), and two herbivorous lagomorph prey (black-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus californicus; and desert cottontail, Sylvilagus audubonii) in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, USA. We evaluated alternative hypotheses for how shrub encroachment could affect habitat use and trophic interactions, including (i) modifying bottom-up processes by reducing herbaceous forage, (ii) modifying top-down processes by changing canid space use or the landscape of fear experienced by lagomorph prey and (iii) altering intraguild interactions between the dominant coyote and the intermediate kit fox. We used 7 years of camera trap data collected across grassland-to-shrubland gradients under variable precipitation to test our a priori hypotheses within a structural equation modelling framework. Lagomorph prey responded strongly to bottom-up pulses during years of high summer precipitation, but only at sites with moderate to high shrub cover. This outcome is inconsistent with the hypothesis that bottom-up effects should be strongest in grasslands because of greater herbaceous food resources. Instead, this interaction likely reflects changes in the landscape of fear because perceived predation risk in lagomorphs is reduced in shrub-dominated habitats. Shrub encroachment did not directly affect predation pressure on lagomorphs by changing canid site use intensity. However, site use intensity of both canid species was positively associated with jackrabbits, indicating additional bottom-up effects. Finally, we detected interactions between predators in which coyotes restricted space use of kit foxes, but these intraguild interactions also depended on shrub encroachment. Our findings demonstrate how environmental change can affect trophic interactions beyond traditional top-down and bottom-up processes by altering perceived predation risk in prey. These results have implications for understanding spatial patterns of herbivory and the feedbacks that reinforce shrubland states in drylands worldwide.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142466072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Jessica Castellanos-Labarcena, Dirk Steinke, Sarah J Adamowicz
{"title":"Anomalous latitudinal gradients in parasitoid wasp diversity-Hotspots in regions with larger temperature range.","authors":"Jessica Castellanos-Labarcena, Dirk Steinke, Sarah J Adamowicz","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14196","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Knowledge of global patterns of genetic diversity is essential for biodiversity conservation as this parameter describes the ability of a species to respond to environmental changes. Ichneumonoids parasitoid wasps are among the few taxa showing an anomalous latitudinal diversity gradient. Using the largest georeferenced molecular dataset for this group, we used a macrogenetics approach to examine latitudinal patterns and predictors of intraspecific genetic diversity. We calculated the mean nucleotide diversity of mitochondrial DNA barcode sequences at three geographic levels: grid cells, latitudinal bands and climatic zones. Nucleotide diversity values were consistently higher at northern temperate latitudes, peaking at 50°. We found a positive but weak relationship between intraspecific diversity and the latitude, between intra- and interspecific diversity, and a positive effect of the temperature range. Examining the spatial relationship between different levels of biodiversity and its drivers is particularly relevant considering climate change and its impact on species distribution. Yet, in insects, it has been challenging to integrate ecological, evolutionary and geographical components when analysing the processes leading to species richness gradients.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142466070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Leigh West, Kasim Rafiq, Sarah J. Converse, Alan M. Wilson, Neil R. Jordan, Krystyna A. Golabek, J. Weldon McNutt, Briana Abrahms
{"title":"Droughts reshape apex predator space use and intraguild overlap","authors":"Leigh West, Kasim Rafiq, Sarah J. Converse, Alan M. Wilson, Neil R. Jordan, Krystyna A. Golabek, J. Weldon McNutt, Briana Abrahms","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14192","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.14192","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"93 11","pages":"1785-1798"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142375419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Jacquelyn L Fitzgerald, Jane E Ogilvie, Paul J CaraDonna
{"title":"Intraspecific body size variation across distributional moments reveals trait filtering processes.","authors":"Jacquelyn L Fitzgerald, Jane E Ogilvie, Paul J CaraDonna","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14186","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Natural populations are composed of individuals that vary in their morphological traits, timing and interactions. The distribution of a trait can be described by several dimensions, or mathematical moments-mean, variance, skew and kurtosis. Shifts in the distribution of a trait across these moments in response to environmental variation can help to reveal which trait values are gained or lost, and consequently how trait filtering processes are altering populations. To examine the role and drivers of intraspecific variation within a trait filtering framework, we investigate variation in body size among five wild bumblebee species in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. First, we examine the relationships between environmental factors (climate and floral food resources) and body size distributions across bumblebee social castes to identify demographic responses to environmental variation. Next, we examine changes in the moments of trait distributions to reveal potential mechanisms behind intraspecific shifts in body size. Finally, we examine how intraspecific body size variation is related to diet breadth and phenology. We found that climate conditions have a strong effect on observed body size variation across all distributional moments, but the filtering mechanism varies by social caste. For example, with earlier spring snowmelt queens declined in mean size and became negatively skewed and more kurtotic. This suggests a skewed filter admitting a greater frequency of small individuals. With greater availability of floral food resources, queens increased in mean size, but workers and males decreased in size. Observed shifts in body size variation also correspond with variation in diet breadth and phenology. Populations with larger average body size were associated with more generalized foraging in workers of short-tongued species and increased specialization in longer-tongued workers. Altered phenological timing was associated with species- and caste-specific shifts in skew. Across an assemblage of wild bumblebees, we find complex patterns of trait variation that may not have been captured if we had simply considered mean and variance. The four-moment approach we employ here provides holistic insight into intraspecific trait variation, which may otherwise be overlooked and reveals potential underlying filtering processes driving such variation within populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142361550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Rafaela V. Granzotti, Fernanda A. S. Cassemiro, Angelo A. Agostinho, Luis M. Bini
{"title":"Drivers of interspecific synchrony and diversity–stability relationships in floodplain fish communities","authors":"Rafaela V. Granzotti, Fernanda A. S. Cassemiro, Angelo A. Agostinho, Luis M. Bini","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14190","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.14190","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"93 11","pages":"1771-1784"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142361549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Jacques A. Deere, Penelope Holland, Aziz Aboobaker, Roberto Salguero-Gómez
{"title":"Non-senescent species are not immortal: Stress and decline in two planaria species","authors":"Jacques A. Deere, Penelope Holland, Aziz Aboobaker, Roberto Salguero-Gómez","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14184","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.14184","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"93 11","pages":"1722-1735"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2656.14184","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142361551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Mark A. Kirk, Alycia C. R. Lackey, Kelsey E. Reider, Scott A. Thomas, Howard H. Whiteman
{"title":"Climate mediates the trade-offs associated with phenotypic plasticity in an amphibian polyphenism","authors":"Mark A. Kirk, Alycia C. R. Lackey, Kelsey E. Reider, Scott A. Thomas, Howard H. Whiteman","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14187","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.14187","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"93 11","pages":"1747-1757"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142347107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Hua Wang, Tiantian Liu, Shucun Sun, Owen T Lewis, Xinqiang Xi
{"title":"Temporal variability in host availability alters the outcome of competition between two parasitoid species.","authors":"Hua Wang, Tiantian Liu, Shucun Sun, Owen T Lewis, Xinqiang Xi","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.14191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14191","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Variability in the availability of resources through time is a common attribute in trophic interactions, but its effects on the fitness of different consumer species and on interspecific competition between them are not clearly understood. To investigate this, we allowed two parasitoid species, Trichopria drosophilae and Pachycrepoideus vindemiae, to exploit Drosophila host pupae under different temporal variability treatments, either on their own or simultaneously. When tested individually (in the absence of interspecific competition), both parasitoid species had lower fitness when hosts were exposed for a short duration at high density than when exposed for a long duration at low density. When both parasitoid species exploited hosts simultaneously, interspecific competition significantly decreased the number of offspring for both parasitoid species. The outcome of this interspecific competition depended on host temporal variability, with T. drosophilae or P. vindemiae dominating in short and long host exposure treatments, respectively. These results can be explained by the combination of host availability and egg load of female adult parasitoids. When abundant hosts are provided for a short period, the ample mature eggs of the proovigenic T. drosophilae enable them to exploit hosts more efficiently than P. vindemiae, which is synovigenic. However, P. vindemiae is an intrinsically superior competitor and dominates when multiparasitism occurs. Multiparasitism is more frequent when hosts are at low levels relative to the egg load of the parasitoids. Our results clearly demonstrate that resource temporal availability can alter the outcome of competition between consumers with different reproductive traits.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142347120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}