Kilian Perrelet, Lauren M. Cook, Merin Reji Chacko, Florian Altermatt, Marco Moretti
{"title":"Urbanisation Drives the Decoupling, Simplification, and Homogenization of Aquatic and Terrestrial Food Webs","authors":"Kilian Perrelet, Lauren M. Cook, Merin Reji Chacko, Florian Altermatt, Marco Moretti","doi":"10.1111/ele.70212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70212","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Aquatic and terrestrial communities often co-occur at close distances, enabling biotic interactions across ecosystem boundaries. While such interactions in natural habitats contribute to complex, coupled food webs, their dynamics in engineered and fragmented urban habitats are hardly known. Using environmental DNA metabarcoding and a metaweb approach, we examined food web structure at 54 paired aquatic-terrestrial sites along an urbanisation gradient in Zurich, Switzerland. We found that urbanisation led to simpler, less connected, and more homogeneous food webs by replacing high-trophic-level predators with low-trophic-level basal consumers. This shift towards basal consumers, dependent on distinct aquatic or terrestrial basal resources, subsequently weakened the links between aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Conversely, enhancing habitat quantity and landscape connectivity bolstered predator diversity, promoting vertically diverse, connected, complex, and stable food webs. Our findings reveal that while urbanisation can disrupt aquatic-terrestrial food webs, careful urban habitat planning can enhance biodiversity and food web stability.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70212","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145051250","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}
Vojsava Gjoni, Florian Altermatt, Aurélie Garnier, Gian Marco Palamara, Mathew Seymour, Mikael Pontarp, Frank Pennekamp
{"title":"Biodiversity modulates the cross-community scaling relationship in changing environments","authors":"Vojsava Gjoni, Florian Altermatt, Aurélie Garnier, Gian Marco Palamara, Mathew Seymour, Mikael Pontarp, Frank Pennekamp","doi":"10.1111/ele.70208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70208","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Organismal abundance tends to decline with increasing body size. Metabolic theory links this size structure with energy use and productivity, postulating a size–abundance slope of −0.75 that is invariant across environments. We tested the robustness of this relationship across gradients of protist species richness (1–6 species), temperature (15°C–25°C) and time. Using replicated microcosms, we provide an empirical test of how temperature and biodiversity jointly shape the cross-community scaling relationship (CCSR). While our results support the expected slope of −0.75, we also found interactive effects showing the relationship is not invariant. Warming altered abundance scaling with size depending on richness; in high-richness communities, temperature favoured small protists, steepening the CCSR slope. These context-dependent responses emerged over time, suggesting a role of size-dependent species interactions in shaping responses to environmental change. Our findings demonstrate that cross-community size scaling is not fixed but shifts dynamically with ecological context.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70208","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145051251","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":"Legacy of the Lost and Pressure of the Present: Malagasy Plant Seeds Retain Megafauna Dispersal Signatures but Downsize Under Human Pressure","authors":"Yuanshu Pu, Alexander Zizka, Renske E. Onstein","doi":"10.1111/ele.70205","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70205","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ongoing declines of large-bodied frugivores limit the dispersal of large-seeded plants, contributing to their (local) demise and ‘downsizing’ of seeds across assemblages. However, the extent to which human pressure leads to contemporary seed downsizing, and whether extinct megafrugivores have left imprints on seed size, remains unclear. Here, we integrate trait and distribution data for 2852 endozoochorous plant species, 48 extant and 15 extinct frugivore species across 361 assemblages on Madagascar. Using structural equation models, we show that assemblages with higher human footprint, a cumulative index of human pressure, have smaller maximum seed sizes, especially through downsizing of extant frugivores. Furthermore, among assemblages with ‘mega-seeded’ plants (i.e., seeds that cannot be swallowed by any extant Malagasy frugivore), larger seed sizes are associated with larger past megafrugivores, reflecting the legacy of past interactions. Human-driven seed downsizing highlights broader implications in erosions of important ecosystem functions such as forest carbon storage.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70205","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145032387","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}
Caitlin J. Campbell, David M. Nelson, Juliet Nagel, Jeff Clerc, Theodore J. Weller, Jamin G. Wieringa, Erin Fraser, Fred J. Longstaffe, Amanda M. Hale, Meghan Lout, Lori Pruitt, Robert Guralnick, Hannah B. Vander Zanden
{"title":"Migratory Strategy is a Key Factor Driving Interactions at Wind Energy Facilities in At-Risk North American Bats","authors":"Caitlin J. Campbell, David M. Nelson, Juliet Nagel, Jeff Clerc, Theodore J. Weller, Jamin G. Wieringa, Erin Fraser, Fred J. Longstaffe, Amanda M. Hale, Meghan Lout, Lori Pruitt, Robert Guralnick, Hannah B. Vander Zanden","doi":"10.1111/ele.70202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70202","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Animal migration remains poorly understood for many organisms, impeding understanding of movement dynamics and limiting conservation actions. We develop a framework that scales from movements of individuals to the dynamics of continental migration using data synthesis of endogenous markers, which we apply to three North American bat species with unexplained high rates of fatalities at wind energy facilities. The two species experiencing the highest fatality rates exhibit a “pell-mell” migration strategy in which individuals move from summer habitats in multiple directions, both to higher and lower latitudes, during autumn. We link movements to higher latitudes to encounters with wind energy facilities and report that the timing of pell-mell migration strongly overlaps with that of fatalities at the continental level. These findings support the hypothesis that migration distance and strategy are drivers of increased interactions with wind energy facilities, highlighting the significance of understanding migratory strategy to achieve conservation goals.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145012820","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":"Male Reproductive Senescence in Mammals Is Pervasive and Aligned With the Slow-Fast Continuum","authors":"Cambreling Solène, Ronget Victor, Remot Florentin, Gaillard Jean-Michel, Lemaitre Jean-François","doi":"10.1111/ele.70194","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70194","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Reproductive senescence, the decline in any component of offspring recruitment with increasing age, has been well documented in mammalian females. Male reproductive senescence, however, is much less understood, partly due to the past complexities of getting reliable paternity assignment in the wild. Through a standardised literature search, we compiled age-specific reproductive data on both mating and reproductive success on 57 species encompassing 73 populations. We then explored the occurrence of male reproductive senescence and sought to identify key ecological and evolutionary drivers modulating its intensity. We found evidence of reproductive senescence in 59.6% of the studied species, with a detection probability increasing with larger sample sizes and longer age ranges relative to lifespan (i.e., relative maximum age measured as the ratio between the oldest age sampled and the species maximum longevity). As expected, both the onset and the rate of male reproductive senescence were aligned with the species position along the slow–fast continuum, with fast-living species exhibiting earlier and stronger reproductive senescence than slow-living species. Moreover, the rate of reproductive senescence also increased with the level of sexual size dimorphism, highlighting that males from species displaying a high level of sexual selection suffer from a steeper rate of reproductive senescence.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70194","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145008743","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":"Mycorrhizal Network and Symbiotic N-Fixer Jointly Enhance the Interplant Nitrogen Sharing","authors":"Yuxuan Gao, Yuntao Wu, Pengfei Chang, Ping Li, Shuijin Hu, Lingli Liu","doi":"10.1111/ele.70204","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.70204","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB) enhance nitrogen (N) acquisition in host plants and may promote N transfer to neighbouring plants through mycorrhizal networks (MN). Nevertheless, the extent and mechanisms of this transfer remain unclear. On the basis of a synthesis of <sup>15</sup>N labeling studies, we show that MN and NFB synergistically enhanced interplant N sharing. In the presence of MN, N transfer from N-fixing donors to non-N-fixing receivers increased by an average of 9.7-fold, accounting for 5.61% of the total N in receiver plants. Moreover, greater amounts of N were transferred from N-fixing plants towards their phylogenetically distant plants. Source-sink gradients driven by differences in N content between neighbouring plants further promoted N transfer. Together, our findings highlight the ecological significance of an expanded MN framework in explaining interplant N sharing and provide new insights into how symbiotic guild interactions promote species coexistence and biodiversity maintenance.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145008742","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}
Sol Lucas, Per Berggren, Ellen Barrowclift, Isabel M. Smallegange
{"title":"Changing Feeding Levels Reveal Plasticity in Elasmobranch Life History Strategies","authors":"Sol Lucas, Per Berggren, Ellen Barrowclift, Isabel M. Smallegange","doi":"10.1111/ele.70201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70201","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Life history strategies are shaped by phylogeny, environmental conditions and individual energy budgets, and have implications for conservation biology. We summarised life history traits of 151 elasmobranch species into life history strategies for two contrasting feeding levels, representing two different environments, in a principal components analysis. Two axes, reproductive output and generation turnover, structure elasmobranch life history strategies. Species' positions in this life history space were not fixed but shifted to higher reproductive output when feeding level increased. We also found that both axes predicted population performance, but that population growth rate does not necessarily inform on a species' demographic resilience. Finally, neither axis predicted IUCN conservation status. Our analyses reveal plasticity in species life history strategies and warn against extrapolating the life history strategy framework from one environment to another when predicting a species' response to (climate) change, perturbations, and (over)exploitation.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70201","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144935125","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":"Impacts of Changing Winters on Lake Ecosystems Will Increase With Latitude","authors":"Ted Ozersky, Amanda Poste, Milla Rautio, Eva Leu","doi":"10.1111/ele.70200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70200","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate warming is especially pronounced in winter and at high latitudes. Warming winters are leading to the loss of lake ice and changing snow cover on lakes. Historically, lake scientists have paid less attention to the ice cover period, leading to data and theory gaps about the role of winter conditions in lake ecosystem function and the consequences of changing winters. Here we use simple models to show that the latitudinal interaction between ice cover duration and light flux seasonality has profound and underappreciated implications for lakes. Our models focus on light and temperature, two key drivers of ecosystem processes. We show that the relative amount of light arriving in lakes during ice cover increases non-linearly with latitude and that the light climate of high latitude lakes is much more sensitive to changing winter conditions than that of lower latitude lakes. We also demonstrate that the synchronicity between high light and warm temperatures may decrease with latitude, with implications for primary and secondary production. Our results suggest that ice loss may lead to greater relative change to productivity and biotic interactions in higher latitude lakes and also offer several testable predictions for understanding the consequences of climate-induced changes across latitudinal gradients.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70200","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144894469","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}
Rachel E. Ward, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Kate Abernethy, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Luzmilla Arroyo, Andrew Bailey, Jos Barlow, Erika Berenguer, Liana Chesini-Rossi, Percival Cho, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Eder Carvalho das Neves, Bianca de Oliveira Sales, William Farfan-Rios, Joice Nunes Ferreira, Renata Freitag, Cécile Girardin, Walter Huaraca Huasco, Carlos A. Joly, Yadvinder Malhi, Beatriz Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Alexandra C. Morel, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Simone Reis, Terhi Riutta, Norma Salinas, Marina Seixas, Miles R. Silman, Lara M. Kueppers
{"title":"Forest Age Rivals Climate to Explain Reproductive Allocation Patterns in Forest Ecosystems Globally","authors":"Rachel E. Ward, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Kate Abernethy, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Luzmilla Arroyo, Andrew Bailey, Jos Barlow, Erika Berenguer, Liana Chesini-Rossi, Percival Cho, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Eder Carvalho das Neves, Bianca de Oliveira Sales, William Farfan-Rios, Joice Nunes Ferreira, Renata Freitag, Cécile Girardin, Walter Huaraca Huasco, Carlos A. Joly, Yadvinder Malhi, Beatriz Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Alexandra C. Morel, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Simone Reis, Terhi Riutta, Norma Salinas, Marina Seixas, Miles R. Silman, Lara M. Kueppers","doi":"10.1111/ele.70191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70191","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Forest allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) to reproduction (carbon required for flowers, fruits, and seeds) is poorly quantified globally, despite its critical role in forest regeneration and a well-supported trade-off with allocation to growth. Here, we present the first global synthesis of a biometric proxy for forest reproductive allocation (RA) across environmental and stand age gradients from a compiled dataset of 824 observations across 393 sites. We find that ecosystem-scale RA increases ~60% from boreal to tropical forests. Climate shows important non-linear relationships with RA, but is not the sole predictor. Forest age effects are comparable to climate in magnitude (MAT: ß = 0.24, <i>p</i> = 0.021; old growth forest: ß = 0.22, <i>p</i> < 0.001), while metrics of soil fertility show small but significant relationships with RA (soil pH: ß = 0.07, <i>p</i> = 0.001; soil N: ß = −0.07, <i>p</i> = 0.001). These results provide strong evidence that ecosystem-scale RA is mediated by climate, forest age, and soil conditions, and is not a globally fixed fraction of positive NPP as assumed by most vegetation and ecosystem models. Our dataset and findings can be used by modellers to improve predictions of forest regeneration and carbon cycling.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70191","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144894471","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}
Cassie N. Speakman, Sarah Bull, Sarah Cubaynes, Katrina J. Davis, Sébastien Devillard, John M. Fryxell, Cara A. Gallagher, Elizabeth A. McHuron, Kévan Rastello, Isabel M. Smallegange, Roberto Salguero-Gómez, Elsa Bonnaud, Christophe Duchamp, Patrick Giraudoux, Simon Lacombe, Courtney J. Marneweck, Louis Schroll, Adrien Tableau, Sandrine Ruette, Olivier Gimenez
{"title":"Understanding and Predicting Population Response to Anthropogenic Disturbance: Current Approaches and Novel Opportunities","authors":"Cassie N. Speakman, Sarah Bull, Sarah Cubaynes, Katrina J. Davis, Sébastien Devillard, John M. Fryxell, Cara A. Gallagher, Elizabeth A. McHuron, Kévan Rastello, Isabel M. Smallegange, Roberto Salguero-Gómez, Elsa Bonnaud, Christophe Duchamp, Patrick Giraudoux, Simon Lacombe, Courtney J. Marneweck, Louis Schroll, Adrien Tableau, Sandrine Ruette, Olivier Gimenez","doi":"10.1111/ele.70198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70198","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Effective conservation of biodiversity depends on the successful management of wildlife populations and their habitats. Successful management, in turn, depends on our ability to understand and accurately forecast how populations and communities respond to human-induced changes in their environments. However, quantifying how these stressors impact population dynamics remains challenging. Another significant hurdle at this interface is determining which quantitative approach(es) are most appropriate given data types, constraints and the intended purpose. Here, we provide a cross-taxa overview of key methodological approaches (e.g., matrix population models) and model elements (e.g., energetics) that are currently used to model the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on wildlife populations. Specifically, we discuss how these modelling approaches differ in their key assumptions, in their structure and complexity, in the questions they are best poised to address and in their data requirements. Our intention is to help overcome some of the methodological biases that might persist across taxonomic specialisations, identify new opportunities to address existing modelling challenges and improve scientific understanding of the direct and indirect impacts of anthropogenic disturbance. We guide users through the identification of appropriate model configurations for different management purposes, while also suggesting key priorities for model development and integration.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"28 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70198","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144891718","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}