Journal of Animal Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Complexity promotes stability in mutualistic networks through weaker mutualistic dependencies: Insights from Generalized Modelling.","authors":"Timo Metz, Jan Timo Bachmann, Nico Blüthgen, Thilo Gross","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70344","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mutualistic networks provide essential contributions to long-term ecosystem functioning and food security, but Anthropocene stressors continue to alter their structure and size. Previous theoretical approaches produce conflicting predictions for how network features influence dynamical stability, which is the ability to return to the original state after a disturbance. The main methods, which are random matrix models and conventional differential equation models, face certain limitations, including difficulties in incorporating some biological details or explicit parameterization. An alternative approach is given by Generalized Modelling, which combines both high efficiency with high biological realism, but has not been applied to plant-animal mutualistic networks prior to this study. Here, we develop a Generalized Model for mutualism that allows the mathematically rigorous and highly efficient analysis of dynamical stability for many network replicates ( <math><mrow><mo>∼</mo> <msup><mn>10</mn> <mn>5</mn></msup> </mrow> </math> per data point). The model incorporates important biological mechanisms that are known to influence stability behaviour, such as animal competition for limited plant resources and saturating mutualistic benefits, without the need for explicit parameterization. Using simulated network structures we find increasing dynamical stability with increasing complexity as measured by the product of species richness and connectance. We are able to explain this effect mechanistically: While mutualistic interactions do represent destabilizing positive feedbacks, the strengths of those feedbacks weaken with increasing complexity because mutualistic dependencies as given by the Jacobian matrix elements in the off-diagonal blocks decrease. We further show that the effect of nestedness on the dynamical stability of simulated networks is negligible compared to the effect of connectance and species richness. Additionally, we find similar relationships between network features and dynamical stability for 160 empirical networks as an input for our model, highlighting the robustness of our findings. As Anthropocene stressors lead to species and interaction loss, our model results predict a corresponding loss in dynamical stability if network complexity is decreased, highlighting the urgency of conservation strategies that preserve network complexity.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891608","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}

{"title":"Elements on the move: How ungulate migration expands Alpine biogeochemical footprints.","authors":"Kristy M Ferraro, Andrea Corradini, Vivian Hawkinson, Olivier Chanel, Charles Figuières, Yann Bramoullé, Charlotte Vanderlocht, Federico Ossi, Davide Righetti, Oswald J Schmitz, Francesca Cagnacci","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70340","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Through depositing waste products, animals influence the spatial distribution of elements across landscapes. Yet the relationship between animal movement and element distribution remains poorly characterized. We developed a spatially explicit agent-based model to test how migratory versus resident red deer (Cervus elaphus) influence nitrogen redistribution across an alpine landscape in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps. Specifically, we asked how both local-scale and landscape-scale movement alter the spatial extent and magnitude of nitrogen deposition. We parameterized our model with GPS telemetry from 2021 to 2024 and remotely sensed vegetation data. We simulated four different scenarios which allowed us to disentangle the relative effects of large-scale (migration persisting) and fine-scale (resident behaviour) movement: (i) mixed migratory-resident (300 deer), (ii) fully resident (300 deer), (iii) reduced resident (150 deer) and (iv) reduced migratory (150 deer). The potential for nitrogen intake, assimilation, and excretion occurred hourly across a seasonally dynamic landscape. Across all scenarios, tree cover density and slope consistently emerged as positive predictors of nitrogen transport. Thus, regardless of resident or migratory status, red deer act as mediators of local element transport. Similarly, proximity to roads/trails reduced nitrogen inputs and created closed systems, indicating that barriers constrain both local and landscape-scale element transport. Migration substantially expanded the spatial extent of nitrogen redistribution and enabled the upward movement of elements, both locally upslope and into higher elevation habitats, effectively transporting elements against gravitational forces. Consequently, the loss of migration is likely to weaken these large-scale element linkages and reduce associated ecosystem functions. Our results demonstrate that different animal movement patterns play distinct and complementary roles in connecting element pools across landscapes. While both resident and migrant foraging redistribute elements locally, migratory movements link lowland and alpine habitats, expanding the spatial reach of element redistribution. Thus, loss of migration not only reduces the spatial extent of element distribution but also alters the topographic pathways through which elements are cycled. These findings highlight the broader ecosystem consequences of declining animal movement extent, and migration in particular, and underscore the importance of conserving behavioural diversity to maintain element heterogeneity and ecosystem functioning in mountain systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891549","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}

{"title":"Weathering the storm: Most maternal and environmental drivers of individual reproductive success do not scale up to population recruitment in a large herbivore.","authors":"Rachel Bergeron, Richard P Duncan, David M Forsyth, Wendy J King, Marco Festa-Bianchet","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70341","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70341","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Population growth depends upon individual survival and reproduction, but do drivers of individual reproductive success scale up to population recruitment? Factors affecting individuals may have little effect on population dynamics if individuals within a population experience different conditions. When seasonal resource availability is unpredictable and breeding season long, average conditions over a breeding cycle may poorly reflect the environment experienced by many individuals. We compared the drivers of individual reproductive success and population recruitment in an asynchronously breeding large herbivore, the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus). We analysed 18 years of individual-based data using multivariate hierarchical Bayesian models to first identify the causal mechanisms relating population density, environmental conditions and maternal traits to individual success. We then assessed whether the drivers of individual reproductive success scaled up to determine population recruitment. Most maternal and environmental covariates strongly influenced individual reproductive success, with distinct effects on juvenile survival before and after pouch exit. Maternal traits had a greater influence in the pouch, whereas environmental conditions became increasingly important once young exited the pouch. Most drivers of individual reproductive success did not affect population recruitment. Recruitment decreased with population density and increased with mean body condition of adult females. Weather harshness had a weak positive effect on recruitment, which appeared independent of female age structure, previous recruitment or forage. Most drivers of individual reproductive success did not scale up to population recruitment. Birth asynchrony could buffer population recruitment against environmental variation such that variables affecting individual reproduction have little impact at the population level. Large herbivores that reproduce asynchronously may therefore be more resilient to environmental variability than synchronous breeders.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148880404","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}

{"title":"Sex differences in social dominance emerge late in life in a gregarious bird.","authors":"Amalia de la Torre, Patrícia Beltrão, Ana Cristina R Gomes, Gonçalo C Cardoso","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70345","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social dominance shapes group structure and the collective behaviour of gregarious animals. Senescence, the progressive physiological deterioration associated with ageing, may influence behaviour, including social dominance, while reproductive roles may lead to different onset times or rates of senescence between the sexes. However, how ageing shapes sex differences in sociality remains poorly understood, largely due to the scarcity of long-term studies comparing male and female social behaviour. To address this gap of knowledge, we monitored dominance hierarchies during foraging in an ageing, semi-natural population of adult common waxbills (Estrilda astrild). Our study lasted 5 years, which is more than most adult waxbills would live in the wild, to facilitate detecting effects of senescence. At the onset of the study, sex differences in dominance were negligible but became pronounced with ageing during breeding seasons. In contrast, sex differences remained weak during non-breeding seasons. Females showed stronger longitudinal and seasonal changes in dominance than males, whose dominance patterns remained more consistent across breeding and non-breeding periods. Nonetheless, social dominance also increased, on average, as the number of years until death decreased. Although sex differences in animal sociality are often thought of as largely fixed, our findings reveal a dynamic pattern in which sex differences in dominance emerge with ageing and are context-dependent, varying across breeding seasons. Overall, our results suggest that senescence and seasonal context shape sociality later in life.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148880385","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}

{"title":"Functional traits explain responses of Appalachian birds to vertical and horizontal forest structure","authors":"Trevor Roberts,&nbsp;Marta A. Jarzyna,&nbsp;Chenyang Wei,&nbsp;Colin P. Sweeney,&nbsp;Hikaru Keebler,&nbsp;Daniel Fink,&nbsp;Kaiguang Zhao,&nbsp;Benjamin Zuckerberg","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70326","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70326","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"95 9","pages":"1598-1615"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2656.70326","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148630552","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}

{"title":"Effects of heat stress on the foraging activity of incipient ant colonies.","authors":"Rafael Carvalho da Silva, Maëlys Prost, Angélique Bultelle, Thibaud Monnin","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70337","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Global warming affects organismal performance across biological levels, from molecular processes to complex behaviours. Ectotherms are particularly vulnerable to thermal stress, as their body temperature critically depends on ambient environmental conditions. Warming may affect their foraging behaviour and/or their activity patterns. Here, we experimentally investigated the effects of acute and chronic thermal stresses on foraging by an ectotherm species. Social insects are important ecosystem engineers. Colony survival and growth depend on successful foraging, and colonies are more susceptible to warming when they are young and have fewer workers. We investigate how heat intensity and exposure duration influence foraging dynamics and survivorship in young colonies of the Lasius niger ant. Using laboratory assays, we studied the effects of acute heat stress by exposing foragers to short (10 min) and intermediate (1 h) heat pulses of 25°C (control), 30°C, 35°C and 40°C. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of chronic heat stress by rearing colonies at 25°C:20°C (day:night, control conditions) or 35°C:30°C (heat stress) for 2 weeks. After heat exposure, we recorded the latency to initiate foraging, the number of foraging visits and individual and colony survival between treatments. We hypothesized that ants could cope with relatively low and relatively short heat shocks, but not with high or long heat exposures. We found that prolonged and high heat exposure indeed increased the mortality of foragers and colonies, increased the delay before foraging, and decreased the number of foraging trips. Reduced foraging capacity in young colonies is likely to have strong fitness consequences. The establishment of colonies is dependent on the rapid acquisition of resources to sustain exponential growth. Any slowdown in resource intake can limit colony development and prolong the duration of the incipient (newly founded) and vulnerable stage, ultimately reducing the likelihood of successful establishment.</p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148880283","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}

{"title":"Abiotic variables drive different aspects of fish community trait variation and species richness across the continental United States","authors":"Alicia McGrew,&nbsp;Crysta Gantz,&nbsp;Brigid Wills,&nbsp;Benjamin Baiser,&nbsp;Sydne Record,&nbsp;Phoebe L. Zarnetske,&nbsp;Angela L. Strecker","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70014","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70014","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"95 9","pages":"1522-1538"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2656.70014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143663513","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}

{"title":"Biogeographic shifts in reef fish size structure along the Southeastern Pacific occur independently of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll-a","authors":"Simon Gartenstein,&nbsp;José Garcés-Vargas,&nbsp;Vicente I. Villalobos,&nbsp;Eliseo Fica-Rojas,&nbsp;Natalio Godoy,&nbsp;Felipe Torres Cañete,&nbsp;Alejandro Pérez-Matus,&nbsp;Nelson Valdivia","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70261","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"95 9","pages":"1642-1655"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147838185","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}

{"title":"Biological invasions disrupt the relationship between size spectrum and trophic interactions in freshwater fish communities","authors":"Valentin Marin,&nbsp;Gaël Grenouillet,&nbsp;Ignasi Arranz,&nbsp;Julien Cucherousset","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70260","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70260","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"95 9","pages":"1629-1641"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2656.70260","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147972792","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}

{"title":"Playing it safe at early life stages: Balancing energy allocations to maximize fitness under seasonal pathogen dynamics","authors":"Zuania Colón-Piñeiro,&nbsp;Nich W. Martin,&nbsp;Travis J. Klee,&nbsp;Brittaney L. Buchanan,&nbsp;Colette M. St. Mary,&nbsp;Miguel A. Acevedo,&nbsp;Patricia A. Burrowes,&nbsp;Ana V. Longo","doi":"10.1111/1365-2656.70282","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1365-2656.70282","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000 \u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14934,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Animal Ecology","volume":"95 9","pages":"1741-1761"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148251654","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}