Daniel C. Suh, Katie Schroeder, Alexander T. Strauss
{"title":"Temperature and Resources Interact to Affect Transmission via Host Foraging Rate and Susceptibility","authors":"Daniel C. Suh, Katie Schroeder, Alexander T. Strauss","doi":"10.1111/ele.70151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70151","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Environmental conditions such as temperature and resource availability can shape disease transmission by altering contact rates and/or the probability of infection given contact. However, interactive effects of these factors on transmission processes remain poorly understood. We develop mechanistic models and fit them to experimental data to uncover how temperature and resources jointly affect transmission of fungal parasites (<i>Metschnikowia bicuspidata</i>) in zooplankton hosts (<i>Daphnia dentifera</i>). Model competition revealed interactive effects of temperature and resources on both contact rates (host foraging) and the probability of infection given contact (per-parasite susceptibility). Foraging rates increased with temperature and decreased with resources (via type-II functional response), but this resource effect weakened at warmer temperatures due to shorter handling times. Per-parasite susceptibility increased with resources at cooler temperatures but remained consistently high when warmer. Our analysis demonstrates that temperature and resources interact to shape transmission processes and provides a general theoretical framework for other host–parasite systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70151","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144367615","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}
Nicholas C. Wu, Tomás Villada-Cadavid, Justin A. Welbergen, Christopher Turbill
{"title":"Seasonal Fattening Among Bat Populations Globally: Storing Energy for Survival in a Changing World","authors":"Nicholas C. Wu, Tomás Villada-Cadavid, Justin A. Welbergen, Christopher Turbill","doi":"10.1111/ele.70155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70155","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Seasonality is a fundamental challenge for life on Earth and energy storage prior to colder and drier periods by fattening is a common strategy for survival. Fattening should reflect a trade-off between an expected seasonal energy deficit and the costs of increased body mass, which are particularly important to flying endotherms. We examined body mass change (Δ<i>M</i><sub>b</sub>), a proxy of fat storage, among bat populations over low productivity periods with global variation in yearly average and seasonality of local climates. We found that Δ<i>M</i><sub>b</sub> increased with decreasing mean annual surface temperature (MAST) but Δ<i>M</i><sub>b</sub> also increased at higher MAST with higher seasonality of rainfall. Seasonal use of body energy reserves by bats is predicted to be widespread in warm, seasonal climates at low latitudes but is poorly studied compared to cold temperate regions. In colder climates only, females lost less mass than males over winter, supporting the ‘thrifty females’ hypothesis, and Δ<i>M</i><sub>b</sub> has increased with year of study in warm climates, possibly linked to effects of global climate change on their energetics. Our quantitative synthesis highlights how intrinsic and environmental factors shape seasonal fattening in bats, and its global importance for survival in this diverse and widespread mammal group.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70155","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144367610","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}
Andrés N. Molina, M. Roberto García-Huidobro, Enrico L. Rezende, Mauricio J. Carter
{"title":"Chronic Heat Tolerance Reveals Overestimated Thermal Safety Margins and Increased Vulnerability in Marine Fish Populations","authors":"Andrés N. Molina, M. Roberto García-Huidobro, Enrico L. Rezende, Mauricio J. Carter","doi":"10.1111/ele.70165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70165","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Predicting vulnerability to global warming remains an elusive goal in thermal biology. In marine fishes, ongoing changes in distribution contrast with their apparent capacity to tolerate temperatures from 5°C up to 25°C higher than current conditions. Employing a data set of 786 upper critical temperatures across 213 species and recent theoretical developments, we provide conclusive evidence that these so-called thermal safety margins overestimate the resilience to warming and that most species inhabit thermal conditions approaching their physiological tolerance limit. This result holds across latitudes and based on historical records, several populations have encountered stressful temperatures in the recent past. While warming tolerance remains similar across geographic regions, behavioural responses are constrained at low latitudes as distribution shifts required to encounter cooler waters are disproportionally higher in the tropics. Overall, our results illustrate how thermotolerance measures can be extrapolated to the field and used to quantify vulnerability to warming.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144473208","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}
Aubrie R. M. James, Margaret M. Mayfield, Malyon D. Bimler
{"title":"Facilitation Thinking for Coexistence Theory","authors":"Aubrie R. M. James, Margaret M. Mayfield, Malyon D. Bimler","doi":"10.1111/ele.70150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70150","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Species interactions are foundational to biodiversity maintenance. Facilitation, a common outcome of species interactions, occurs among and between a wide variety of organisms yet its treatment in the theory and models used to predict species coexistence is underdeveloped. We ask why this is and speculate about how to address this apparent discrepancy. We first evaluate a persistent ambivalence to facilitation in the context of population and community ecology, particularly in contemporary coexistence theory. We then propose ‘facilitation thinking’ to remedy the gap between empirical evidence of facilitation and mathematical theory of coexistence. We briefly discuss how a holistic treatment of facilitation in theory has the potential to reconfigure our basic understanding and definition of coexistence. Ultimately, we argue for an expanded theory of coexistence that accounts for a diversity of species interaction outcomes, allowing for the study of interactions and diversity maintenance beyond the war of all against all.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70150","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144315046","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}
Armun Liaghat, Martin Guillemet, Rachel Whitaker, Sylvain Gandon, Mercedes Pascual
{"title":"Host Competitive Asymmetries Accelerate Viral Evolution in a Microbe–Virus Coevolutionary System","authors":"Armun Liaghat, Martin Guillemet, Rachel Whitaker, Sylvain Gandon, Mercedes Pascual","doi":"10.1111/ele.70153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70153","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Microbial host populations evolve traits conferring specific resistance to viral predators via various defence mechanisms, while viruses reciprocally evolve traits to evade these defences. Such coevolutionary dynamics often involve diversification promoted by negative frequency-dependent selection. However, microbial traits conferring competitive asymmetries can induce directional selection, opposing diversification. Despite extensive research on microbe–virus coevolution, the combined effect of both host trait types and associated selection remains unclear. Using a CRISPR-mediated coevolutionary system, we examine how the co-occurrence of both trait types impacts viral evolution and persistence, previously shown to be transient and nonstationary in computational models. A stochastic model incorporating host competitive asymmetries via variation of intrinsic growth rates reveals that competitively advantaged host clades generate the majority of immune diversity. Greater asymmetries extend viral extinction times, accelerate viral adaptation locally in time and augment long-term local adaptation. These findings align with previous experiments and provide further insights into long-term coevolutionary dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70153","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144315045","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}
Daniel C. G. Metz, Kelly L. Weinersmith, Alexis S. Beagle, Rudra M. Dixit, Christina G. Fragel, Clayton E. Cressler
{"title":"Deadly Decomposers: Distinguishing Life History Strategies on the Parasitism-Saprotrophy Spectrum","authors":"Daniel C. G. Metz, Kelly L. Weinersmith, Alexis S. Beagle, Rudra M. Dixit, Christina G. Fragel, Clayton E. Cressler","doi":"10.1111/ele.70135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70135","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The ability to parasitize living hosts as well as decompose dead organic matter is both common and widespread across prokaryotic and eukaryotic taxa. These parasitic decomposers have long been considered merely accidental or facultative parasites. However, this is often untrue: in many cases, parasitism is integral to the ecology and evolution of these organisms. Combining life cycle information from the literature with a generalised eco-evolutionary model, we define four distinct life history strategies followed by parasitic decomposers. Each strategy has a unique fitness expression, life cycle, ecological context, and set of evolutionary constraints. Correctly classifying parasitic decomposers is essential for understanding their ecology and epidemiology and directly impacts efforts to manage important medical and agricultural pathogens.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70135","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144308993","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}
Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Eamonn I. F. Wooster, April Robin Martinig, Jennifer R. Green, Aimee Chhen, Sandra Cuadros, Ryan Gill, Gopal Khanal, Nicola Love, Rekha Marcus, C. Lauren Mills, Kwasi Wrensford, Nicholas S. Wright, Stefano Mezzini, Jessa Marley, Michael J. Noonan
{"title":"The Human Shield Hypothesis: Does Predator Avoidance of Humans Create Refuges for Prey?","authors":"Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Eamonn I. F. Wooster, April Robin Martinig, Jennifer R. Green, Aimee Chhen, Sandra Cuadros, Ryan Gill, Gopal Khanal, Nicola Love, Rekha Marcus, C. Lauren Mills, Kwasi Wrensford, Nicholas S. Wright, Stefano Mezzini, Jessa Marley, Michael J. Noonan","doi":"10.1111/ele.70138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70138","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As anthropogenic disturbance restructures ecological communities worldwide, ecologists have developed and tested hypotheses about which species “win” and “lose” in the face of human impacts. One heavily invoked paradigm is that of the human shield, which posits that predators avoid areas of human disturbance due to perceived risk from humans, and prey therefore seek refuge in these areas of perceived safety. Since its introduction in 2007, the human shield hypothesis (HSH) has gained popularity in the ecological literature, although there are more passing mentions of human shields than there are robust tests of the HSH. Here, we systematically review evidence for the HSH and evaluate how it is commonly discussed and tested. While there are several clear-cut cases of human shields, the emergence of human shields is highly context-dependent. By formally outlining the assumptions of the HSH, we derive predictions about what ecological and anthropogenic contexts are most likely to be conducive to human shields. Further robust studies that compete the HSH against alternative hypotheses and account for confounding factors can shed light on the role of human shields in human-modified ecosystems and inform the conservation and management of wildlife in a changing world.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70138","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144300459","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}
R. C. Rodríguez-Caro, R. Gumbs, E. Graciá, S. P. Blomberg, H. Cayuela, M. K. Grace, C. P. Carmona, H. A. Pérez-Mendoza, A. Giménez, K. J. Davis, R. Salguero-Gómez
{"title":"Synergistic and Additive Effects of Multiple Threats Erode Phylogenetic and Life History Strategy Diversity in Testudines and Crocodilia","authors":"R. C. Rodríguez-Caro, R. Gumbs, E. Graciá, S. P. Blomberg, H. Cayuela, M. K. Grace, C. P. Carmona, H. A. Pérez-Mendoza, A. Giménez, K. J. Davis, R. Salguero-Gómez","doi":"10.1111/ele.70147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70147","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how multiple threats interact is crucial for the prioritisation of conservation measures. Here, we investigate how interactions between six common threats (climate change, habitat disturbance, global trade, overconsumption, pollution and emerging diseases/invasive species) reduce the life history strategy diversity and phylogenetic diversity of 230 species of Testudines and 21 of Crocodilia. We classify threat interactions into additive, synergistic and antagonistic according to the reduction of life history strategy and phylogenetic diversity. Most threat interactions are antagonistic; the effect of threats jointly is lower than the sum of the effects of threats separately. However, we find that the interaction between emerging diseases or invasive species with other threats has synergistic and additive effects, meaning that the combined effects are greater than or equal to the effects of threats separately. Our work can help target conservation strategies and detect key places to address multiple threats when they appear together.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70147","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144273393","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}
Nelson Valdivia, Alexis M. Catalán, Daniela N. López, Moisés A. Aguilera, Claudia Betancourtt, Eliseo Fica-Rojas, Bernardo R. Broitman
{"title":"Species Removal Dampens the Scale Dependency of Ecological Determinism and Stochasticity in Coastal Communities","authors":"Nelson Valdivia, Alexis M. Catalán, Daniela N. López, Moisés A. Aguilera, Claudia Betancourtt, Eliseo Fica-Rojas, Bernardo R. Broitman","doi":"10.1111/ele.70144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70144","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Deterministic and stochastic processes control community dynamics. However, the responses of both processes to the loss of foundation species, which strongly influence community dynamics across spatial scales, are unclear. We experimentally examined how spatial extent and foundation species removal affect rocky-intertidal community dynamics over 3 years in eight field sites spanning ~1000 km along the southeastern Pacific. The normalised stochasticity ratio (<i>NST</i>), which distinguishes between stochastic (> 50%) and deterministic (< 50%) community dynamics, decreased with spatial extent for sessile and mobile species, with consistently lower values under foundation species removal for sessile communities. The effect of foundation species removal on <i>NST</i> was strongest in smaller sessile communities and diminished as spatial extent increased, while mobile communities showed no significant response to the disturbance. Our experimental results demonstrate that the loss of foundation species disrupts the scale dependency of ecological mechanisms, highlighting its negative implications for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144220308","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}
Bana A. Kabalan, Alexander J. Reisinger, Lauren M. Pintor, Marco Scarasso, Ashley R. Smyth, Lindsey S. Reisinger
{"title":"Intraspecific Variation in Crayfish Behaviour Alters Stream Ecosystem Functions","authors":"Bana A. Kabalan, Alexander J. Reisinger, Lauren M. Pintor, Marco Scarasso, Ashley R. Smyth, Lindsey S. Reisinger","doi":"10.1111/ele.70148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70148","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Human-induced environmental changes are reshaping animal behavioural traits, yet their ecological consequences remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that among-population variation in the behavioural traits of two freshwater crayfish species profoundly affects key ecosystem functions in streams. Crayfish movement behaviour was strongly linked to increased water column metabolism in both natural streams and controlled mesocosm experiments. Movement also influenced nutrient cycling, highlighting the role of bioturbation in ecosystem dynamics. In contrast, boldness negatively impacted leaf litter breakdown, suggesting that less bold individuals rely more on leaf litter as refuge and food. Notably, within-species behavioural differences often outweighed species identity in determining ecological impacts. Our findings reveal that shifts in animal movement behaviour can drive fundamental ecological processes and emphasise the overlooked importance of within-species trait variation. These results advance our understanding of how behavioural diversity influences ecosystem functions and underscore the need to incorporate intraspecific variation into ecological frameworks.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144220086","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}