Ecology Letters最新文献

{"title":"Increasing Aridity May Threaten the Maintenance of a Plant Defence Polymorphism","authors":"Lauren N. Carley,&nbsp;Tom Mitchell-Olds,&nbsp;William F. Morris","doi":"10.1111/ele.70039","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70039","url":null,"abstract":"<p>It is unclear how environmental change influences standing genetic variation in wild populations. Here, we characterised environmental conditions that protect versus erode polymorphic chemical defences in <i>Boechera stricta</i> (Brassicaceae), a short-lived perennial wildflower. By manipulating drought and herbivory in a 4-year field experiment, we measured the effects of driver variation on vital rates of genotypes varying in defence chemistry and then assessed interacting driver effects on total fitness (estimated as each genotype's lineage growth rate, <i>λ</i>) using demographic models. Drought and herbivory interacted to shape vital rates, but contrasting defence genotypes had equivalent total fitness in many environments. Defence polymorphism thus may persist under a range of conditions; however, ambient field conditions fall close to the boundary of putatively polymorphic environment space, and increasing aridity may drive populations to monomorphism. Consequently, elevated intensity and/or frequency of drought under climate change may erode genetic variation for defence chemistry in <i>B. stricta</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70039","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142905552","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":"Community Synchrony in Seed Production is Associated With Trait Similarity and Climate Across North America","authors":"Jalene M. LaMontagne,&nbsp;David F. Greene,&nbsp;E. Penelope Holland,&nbsp;Jill F. Johnstone,&nbsp;Mark Schulze,&nbsp;Jess K. Zimmerman,&nbsp;Nicholas J. Lyon,&nbsp;Angel Chen,&nbsp;Tom E. X. Miller,&nbsp;Katherine M. Nigro,&nbsp;Rebecca S. Snell,&nbsp;Jessica H. Barton,&nbsp;V. Bala Chaudhary,&nbsp;Natalie L. Cleavitt,&nbsp;Elizabeth E. Crone,&nbsp;Walter D. Koenig,&nbsp;Diana Macias,&nbsp;Ian S. Pearse,&nbsp;Miranda D. Redmond","doi":"10.1111/ele.14498","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14498","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Mast seeding, the synchronous and highly variable production of seed crops by perennial plants, is a population-level phenomenon and has cascading effects in ecosystems. Mast seeding studies are typically conducted at the population/species level. Much less is known about synchrony in mast seeding between species because the necessary long-term data are rarely available. To investigate synchrony between species within communities, we used long-term data from seven forest communities in the U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network, ranging from tropical rainforest to boreal forest. We focus on cross-species synchrony and (i) quantify synchrony in reproduction overall and within LTER sites, (ii) test for relationships between synchrony with trait and phylogenetic similarity and (iii) investigate how climate conditions at sites are related to levels of synchrony. Overall, reproductive synchrony between woody plant species was greater than expected by chance, but spanned a wide range of values between species. Based on 11 functional and reproductive traits for 103 species (plus phylogenetic relatedness), cross-species synchrony in reproduction was driven primarily by trait similarity with phylogeny being largely unimportant, and synchrony was higher in sites with greater climatic water deficit. Community-level synchrony in masting has consequences for understanding forest regeneration dynamics and consumer-resource interactions.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14498","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142908284","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":"Large Differences in Herbivore Performance Emerge From Simple Herbivore Behaviours and Fine-Scale Spatial Heterogeneity in Phytochemistry","authors":"Vincent S. Pan,&nbsp;Enakshi Ghosh,&nbsp;Paul J. Ode,&nbsp;William C. Wetzel,&nbsp;Kadeem J. Gilbert,&nbsp;Ian S. Pearse","doi":"10.1111/ele.70044","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70044","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Patterns of phytochemistry localisation in plant tissues are diverse within and across leaves. These spatial heterogeneities are important to the fitness of herbivores, but their effects on herbivore foraging and dietary experience remain elusive. We manipulated the spatial variance and clusteredness of a plant toxin in a synthetic diet landscape on which individual caterpillars fed. We monitored caterpillars with cameras across most of their larval development. Caterpillars that fed on diets with a lower spatial variance and more clustered arrangement of toxins had overall worse performance, mostly because those caterpillars ate less, moved more, ingested more toxin, or failed to physiologically acclimate. Using empirically parameterised individual-based models, we found that differences in movement away from, not towards, less toxic food drove a body size-dependent effect of clusteredness. Hence, the spatial pattern of phytochemicals itself, beyond mean concentration, can have important consequences for herbivores through complex interactions with herbivore foraging.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70044","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142905197","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":"Temporal Changes in the Role of Species Sorting and Evolution Determine Community Dynamics","authors":"Julius Hoffmann,&nbsp;Shane Hogle,&nbsp;Teppo Hiltunen,&nbsp;Lutz Becks","doi":"10.1111/ele.70033","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Evolutionary change within community members and shifts in species composition via species sorting contribute to community and trait dynamics. However, we do not understand when and how both processes contribute to community dynamics. Here, we estimated the contributions of species sorting and evolution over time (60 days) in bacterial communities of 24 species under selection by a ciliate predator. We found that species sorting contributed to increased community carrying capacity, while evolution contributed to decreased anti-predator defences. The relative roles of both processes changed over time, and our analysis indicates that if initial trait variation was in the direction of selection, species sorting prevailed, otherwise evolution drove phenotypic change. Furthermore, community composition, population densities and genomic evolution were affected by phenotypic match–mismatch combinations of predator and prey evolutionary history. Overall, our findings help to integrate when and how ecological and evolutionary processes structure communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70033","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142905186","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":"Editorial: The Critical Role of Very Long-Term Studies in Ecology and Evolution","authors":"Stéphane Blanc,&nbsp;Peter H. Thrall","doi":"10.1111/ele.70049","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70049","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Ecological and evolutionary processes are inherently dynamic, driven by processes that often unfold over timescales that far exceed the duration of most studies. Short-term research provides valuable insights, but it captures only snapshots of these complex processes, potentially overlooking long-term patterns, counter-intuitive interactions and delayed responses. This special issue of Ecology Letters, titled ‘Ecological and Evolutionary Insights from Very Long-Term Studies’, highlights the unique and indispensable contributions of studies that have maintained consistent observations for two decades or more. Taken collectively, these studies demonstrate that the value of long-term studies increases with time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, while very long-term ecological studies are rare, in part because of the sustained commitment required to maintain them, they are essential for understanding the full complexity of natural systems (Jones and Driscoll &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). Many ecological processes, such as species interactions, population dynamics and responses to environmental change, can only be fully understood by observing them over decades. This is true for unravelling fundamental ecological and evolutionary mechanisms but also to study and model the responses of ecosystems to anthropogenic pressures. The IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have indeed both emphasised the urgent need for long-term data to inform our understanding of biodiversity loss and climate change impacts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These global assessments point to the critical role that long-term monitoring plays in detecting trends, predicting future changes, guiding policy (Hughes et al. &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;) and shaping effective conservation and management strategies. Very long-term studies also have the potential to profoundly shift our thinking with regard to long-standing theoretical paradigms in ecology. Thus, such studies have contributed to recent models of how ecological disturbance plays out over multiple spatio-temporal scales, identifying the conditions that drive the emergence of new ecosystem states and how disturbance influences socio-economic dynamics (Gaiser et al. &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This special issue brings together studies that span from 20 to 54 years, showcasing the power of long-term monitoring to uncover ecological and evolutionary processes that would otherwise remain hidden. The range of taxa studied includes birds, plants, insects and marine species, offering a comprehensive view of how different life forms respond to environmental variability and anthropogenic pressures over extended periods of time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, a 54-year dataset on snow petrels (&lt;i&gt;Pagodroma nivea&lt;/i&gt;) reveals how climate change is reshaping pair bond dynamics, with increasing rates of divorce and widowhood linked to changing environmental conditions (Sun et al. &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;). These d","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70049","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142904796","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":"Density dependence maintains long-term stability despite increased isolation and inbreeding in the Florida Scrub-Jay","authors":"Jeremy Summers,&nbsp;Elissa J. Cosgrove,&nbsp;Reed Bowman,&nbsp;John W. Fitzpatrick,&nbsp;Nancy Chen","doi":"10.1111/ele.14483","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14483","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Isolation caused by anthropogenic habitat fragmentation can destabilize populations. Populations relying on the inflow of immigrants can face reduced fitness due to inbreeding depression as fewer new individuals arrive. Empirical studies of the demographic consequences of isolation are critical to understand how populations persist through changing conditions. We used a 34-year demographic and environmental dataset from a population of cooperatively breeding Florida Scrub-Jays (<i>Aphelocoma coerulescens</i>) to create mechanistic models linking environmental and demographic factors to population growth rates. We found that the population has not declined despite both declining immigration and increasing inbreeding, owing to a coinciding response in breeder survival. We find evidence of density-dependent immigration, breeder survival and fecundity, indicating that interactions between vital rates and local density play a role in buffering the population against change. Our study elucidates the impacts of isolation on demography and how long-term stability is maintained via demographic responses.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142904755","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":"Coefficients in Taylor's law increase with the time scale of water clarity measurements in a global suite of lakes","authors":"Max R. Glines,&nbsp;Renata C. H. Amancio,&nbsp;Mikkel René Andersen,&nbsp;Helen Baulch,&nbsp;Ludmila S. Brighenti,&nbsp;Hannah E. Chmiel,&nbsp;Joel E. Cohen,&nbsp;Elvira de Eyto,&nbsp;Oxana Erina,&nbsp;Heidrun Feuchtmayr,&nbsp;Giovanna Flaim,&nbsp;Andrea Giudici,&nbsp;David P. Hamilton,&nbsp;Yannick Huot,&nbsp;Michael R. Kelly,&nbsp;Seán Kelly,&nbsp;Alo Laas,&nbsp;Christopher McBride,&nbsp;Camille Minaudo,&nbsp;Jose Fernandes Bezerra Neto,&nbsp;Katy Nugent,&nbsp;César Ordóñez,&nbsp;Marie-Elodie Perga,&nbsp;Brian Reid,&nbsp;Caren Scott,&nbsp;Peter A. U. Staehr,&nbsp;Denise Tonetta,&nbsp;Danielle Wain,&nbsp;Nicole K. Ward,&nbsp;Kevin C. Rose","doi":"10.1111/ele.14451","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14451","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Identifying the scaling rules describing ecological patterns across time and space is a central challenge in ecology. Taylor's law of fluctuation scaling, which states that the variance of a population's size or density is proportional to a positive power of the mean size or density, has been widely observed in population dynamics and characterizes variability in multiple scientific domains. However, it is unclear if this phenomenon accurately describes ecological patterns across many orders of magnitude in time, and therefore links otherwise disparate observations. Here, we use water clarity observations from 10,531 days of high-frequency measurements in 35 globally distributed lakes, and lower-frequency measurements over multiple decades from 6342 lakes to test this unknown. We focus on water clarity as an integrative ecological characteristic that responds to both biotic and abiotic drivers. We provide the first documentation that variations in ecological measurements across diverse sites and temporal scales exhibit variance patterns consistent with Taylor's law, and that model coefficients increase in a predictable yet non-linear manner with decreasing observation frequency. This discovery effectively links high-frequency sensor network observations with long-term historical monitoring records, thereby affording new opportunities to understand and predict ecological dynamics on time scales from days to decades.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14451","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142908286","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":"Environment-Organism Feedbacks Drive Changes in Ecological Interactions","authors":"Oliver J. Meacock,&nbsp;Sara Mitri","doi":"10.1111/ele.70027","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological interactions are foundational to our understanding of community composition and function. While interactions are known to change depending on the environmental context, it has generally been assumed that external environmental factors are responsible for driving these dependencies. Here, we derive a theoretical framework which instead focuses on how intrinsic environmental changes caused by the organisms themselves alter interaction values. Our central concept is the ‘instantaneous interaction’, which captures the feedback between the current environmental state and organismal growth, generating spatiotemporal context-dependencies as organisms modify their environment over time and/or space. We use small microbial communities to illustrate how this framework can predict time-dependencies in a toxin degradation system, and relate time- and spatial-dependencies in crossfeeding communities. By re-centring the relationship between organisms and their environment, our framework predicts the variations in interactions wherever intrinsic, organism-driven environmental change dominates over external drivers.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142905185","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":"Habitat Restorations in an Urban Landscape Rapidly Assemble Diverse Pollinator Communities That Persist","authors":"Jens Ulrich,&nbsp;Risa D. Sargent","doi":"10.1111/ele.70037","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70037","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological restoration is a leading approach to mitigating biodiversity decline. While restoration often leads to an immediate increase in species abundance or diversity, it is rarely clear whether it supports longer-term biodiversity gains at the landscape scale. To examine the impacts of urban restoration on pollinator biodiversity, we conducted a 3-year natural experiment in 18 parks across a large metropolitan area. We applied an occupancy model to our survey data to determine how restoration, woody plant density and pollinator specialisation impacted interannual pollinator metacommunity dynamics. Restoration drove a rapid increase in pollinator species occurrence that was maintained through a positive balance between colonisation and persistence, resulting in pollinator species richness gains that are retained. We conclude that urban restoration can effectively conserve pollinator biodiversity by influencing the processes that underlie long-term population stability. Our results highlight the need to study the long-term effects of restoration in different landscape contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70037","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142905189","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":"Increased resilience and a regime shift reversal through repeat mass coral bleaching","authors":"Nicholas A. J. Graham,&nbsp;Shaun K. Wilson,&nbsp;Cassandra E. Benkwitt,&nbsp;Rodney Bonne,&nbsp;Rodney Govinden,&nbsp;James P. W. Robinson","doi":"10.1111/ele.14454","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14454","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecosystems are substantially changing in response to ongoing climate change. For example, coral reefs have declined in coral dominance, with some reefs undergoing regime shifts to non-coral states. However, reef responses may vary through multiple heat stress events, with the rarity of long-term ecological datasets rendering such understanding uncertain. Assessing coral reefs across the inner Seychelles islands using a 28-year dataset, we document faster coral recovery from the 2016 than the 1998 marine heatwave event. Further, compositions of benthic and fish communities were more resistant to change following the more recent heat stress, having stabilized in a persistent altered state, with greater herbivory, following the 1998 climate disturbance. Counter to predictions, a macroalgal-dominated reef that had regime-shifted following the 1998 disturbance is transitioning to a coral-dominated state following the 2016 heat stress. Collectively, these patterns indicate that reef systems may be more resilient to repeat heatwave events than anticipated.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14454","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142904989","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}